Egg consumption and coronary atherosclerotic burden

- We assessed the relationship between egg consumption and coronary atherosclerosis.
- The consumption of >1 egg a week was associated with lower atherosclerotic burden.
- Moderate egg consumption may not have an adverse impact in coronary artery disease.

ObjectiveTo verify the association between egg consumption and coronary atherosclerotic burden.DesignObservational study.SettingCardiac catheterization laboratory.ParticipantsAdult patients referred for coronary angiography.MeasurementsSocio-demographic data (age, education level, and occupation), cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, systemic hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and family history of coronary artery disease), and egg-eating habits were assessed using a research questionnaire. Egg consumption was divided into three categories: less than one egg a week; one egg a week; and more than one egg a week. Coronary atherosclerotic burden was assessed by a blinded interventional cardiologist using the Friesinger Score (FS) obtained from the coronary angiography. This score varies from 0 to 15 and evaluated each of the three main coronary arteries separately. For this analysis, the FS was divided into three categories: 0-4, 5-9, and 10-15.ResultsThe study sample was composed of 382 adult patients; 241 patients (63.3%) were male. The average age was 60.3 ± 10.8 years (range 23-89 years). The egg-eating category was inversely associated with dyslipidemia (p < 0.05) but not with the other cardiovascular risk factors. A significant association was found between egg consumption and FS (p < 0.05), showing that patients who ate more than one egg a week had a lower coronary atherosclerotic burden. By multivariate analysis, the atherosclerotic burden was independently associated with sex, age, hypertension and egg consumption.ConclusionIn this observational study of patients undergoing coronary angiography, the consumption of more than one egg per week was associated with a lower coronary atherosclerotic burden.