Abstract
BACKGROUND: Obesity, physical inactivity, and altered estrogen levels play an important role in contributing to disease risk profile and autonomic dysfunction in healthy postmenopausal women. This study was conducted to test the correlation between autonomic dysfunction and dyslipidemia in healthy postmenopausal women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was carried out on sixty healthy postmenopausal women before the age of 65 years, without any gross systemic disease. The following five autonomic functional tests were performed on the study group: heart rate response to deep breathing, heart rate response to Valsalva maneuver, heart rate response to standing up from supine position, blood pressure response to sustained hand grip, and blood pressure response to standing up from supine position. Fasting lipid profile of the study group was tested. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: In the present study, autonomic dysfunction was found in 67% of healthy postmenopausal women. Among the sixty female healthy postmenopausal women included in the study, 68% were found to have dyslipidemia. In our study, there is a statistically significant correlation between autonomic dysfunction and dyslipidemia in healthy postmenopausal women. In these healthy postmenopausal women with increased serum cholesterol, serum low-density lipoprotein, and serum triglycerides, there was autonomic dysfunction which is statistically significant. There is no statistical significance on comparing serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol with autonomic dysfunction in healthy postmenopausal women.