The mean age of the GD group, G group, D group, and N group was 58.92 years,58.03 years༌56.74 years༌57.21 years, respectively. GD group consisted of 86 females and 49 males with female to male ratio of 1.76:1, N group had 28 females and 23 males with a ratio of 1.22:1, D group had 36 females and 66 males with a ratio of 0.55:1, and G group had 84 females and 35 males with a ratio of 2.4:1, the parameters of the age and gender are presented in Table 1. No significant difference was observed for gender among the four groups (P = 0.36). Although genders differ significantly, the comparison among groups was performed separately for each sex, the factor of sex did not impact the results (Table 4).
The mean serum lipid and apolipoprotein including TC, TG, LDL, HDL, VLDL, APOAI, ApoB, and APOAI/APOB in patients aged 40 years and above were shown in Table 2. The comparison of total lipid serum profile in the GD group showed that the mean serum levels of TCH, TG, and VLDL were high but not statistically significant (P > 0.05), compared with the other three groups, however, LDL level and ApoB level showed statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) (Table 3). The mean levels of APoAI/B were lower in a gallstone with diabetic patients, but the decrease was not statistically significant. The serum HDL, ApoB level in patients with gallbladder stones combined with T2DM was observed to be not statistically significant (P > 0.05) with other groups (Table 2). The extracted data was represented using a violin plot with quartiles indicated by dotted lines and median indicated by full lines(Fig. 1). This analysis showed a significant difference in the level of LDL(Fig. 1a) and ApoB(Fig. 1b) in the GD group showing higher figures than the other three groups.
In patients aged over 40 years, we further analyzed the serum lipid profile and apolipoprotein of male and female patients separately. In males, the serum LDL level in the GD group was observed to be higher than three control groups which were statistically significant (P < 0.05) (Table 4, Table 5), the data were used to plot a bar graph as mean ± SD in four separate groups(Fig. 2), but no statistically significant parameters were found in female patients of GD group.
Table 1
Age and gender distribution of patients > 40 years in the case and three control groups. The ages are expressed as mean ± SD. SD: standard deviation;*One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), ** chi-square statistics; Significance was accepted at p values < 0.05.
Physical Parameter | N | D | G | GD | P |
Age (mean ± SD) years | 57.21 ± 10.40 | 56.74 ± 9.35 | 58.03 ± 12.04 | 58.92 ± 9.59 | 0.36* |
Gender (n,%) | | | | | |
Females | 28(12.00%) | 36(15.4%) | 84(35.9%) | 86(36.8%) | < 0.01** |
Males | 23(13.3%) | 66(38.2%) | 35(20.2%) | 49(28.3%) |
Table 2
The median and the quartile range of lipid profile and apolipoprotein in the case and three control groups. All the results are expressed as a median and interquartile range due to not normal distribution. The data were analyzed with Kruskal–Wallis non-parametric test and Shapiro-Wilk tests to check for normal distribution. Significance was accepted at p values < 0.05. *Kruskal–Wallis non-parametric test; Abbreviations: HDL, high-density lipoprotein; LDL, low-density lipoprotein; TC, total cholesterol; TG, triglyceride; ApoAI, apolipoprotein(apo)AI ; ApoB, apolipoprotein(apo)B. Units of TC, TG, HDL, and LDL are mmol/L, Units of Apo A1 and Apo B are g/L.
Physical Parameter | N | D | G | GD | P* |
TC | 3.98(3.71 ~ 4.99) | 4.34(3.56 ~ 4.88) | 4.49(4 ~ 4.95) | 4.66(3.91 ~ 5.34) | 0.014 |
TG | 1.03(0.86 ~ 1.39) | 1.23(0.87 ~ 1.63) | 1.19(0.91 ~ 1.78) | 1.38(1.05 ~ 1.94) | < 0.001 |
HDL | 1.26(1.06 ~ 1.42) | 1.23(0.99 ~ 1.46) | 1.2(0.98 ~ 1.41) | 1.27(1.07 ~ 1.51) | 0.246 |
LDL | 1.98(1.69 ~ 2.42) | 2.19(1.8 ~ 2.659) | 2.07(1.85 ~ 2.46) | 2.49(2.06 ~ 3.02) | < 0.001 |
VLDL | 0.49(0.39 ~ 0.65) | 0.55(0.39 ~ 0.73) | 0.54(0.41 ~ 0.8) | 0.62(0.47 ~ 0.87) | 0.001 |
APoAI | 1.25(1.14 ~ 1.34) | 1.19(0.99 ~ 1.35) | 1.23(1.07 ~ 1.38) | 1.22(1.03 ~ 1.42) | 0.257 |
APoB | 0.78(0.66 ~ 0.95) | 0.88(0.68 ~ 1.01) | 0.8(0.68 ~ 0.93) | 0.94(0.76 ~ 1.15) | < 0.001 |
ApoAI/ApoB | 1.6(1.33 ~ 1.89) | 1.34(1.09 ~ 1.82) | 1.49(1.24 ~ 1.86) | 1.27(1.08 ~ 1.53) | < 0.001 |
Table 3
Multiple comparisons of LDL and ApoB in patients over 40 years among the case and three control groups. For statistical comparisons between groups, the Kruskal-Wallis H test followed by multiple comparisons tests was performed. Significance was accepted at p values < 0.05.
physical parameter | Sample 1-Sample 2 | Test Statistic | Std. Error | Std. Test Statistic | P | Pa |
LDL | GD-N | -92.451 | 19.334 | -4.782 | < 0.001 | < 0.01 |
GD-G | -75.041 | 14.791 | -5.073 | < 0.001 | < 0.01 |
GD-D | -58.657 | 15.432 | -3.801 | < 0.001 | 0.001 |
ApoB | GD-N | -71.026 | 19.332 | -3.674 | < 0.001 | 0.001 |
GD-G | -69.661 | 14.789 | -4.71 | < 0.001 | < 0.01 |
GD-D | -41.169 | 15.431 | -2.668 | 0.008 | 0.046 |
a. Significance values have been adjusted by the Bonferroni correction for multiple tests.
Figure 1 The median and interquartile range(IQR) of the LDL(Fig. 1a) and ApoB(Fig. 1b) levels for the case(GD group) and three control groups(N, D, G groups), the median, upper and lower quartiles, the range were shown as a violin plot
Table 4
Showing median and mean values of lipid profile and apolipoprotein in the case and three control groups, LDL concentrations are expressed as the mean ± SD, the concentrations of TC, TG, HDL, VLDL, APoAI, APoB, and the ratio of ApoAI/ApoB are expressed as median and interquartile range. * One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA); ** Kruskal–Wallis non-parametric test; Significance was accepted at p values < 0.05.
Physical Parameter | N | D | G | GD | P |
TC | 3.77(3.65 ~ 4.91) | 4.32(3.43 ~ 4.82) | 4.46(3.73 ~ 4.93) | 4.37(3.57 ~ 5.3) | 0.398** |
TG | 1.08(0.76 ~ 1.39) | 1.22(0.76 ~ 1.63) | 1.19(0.84 ~ 1.94) | 1.43(0.96 ~ 1.99) | 0.046** |
HDL | 1.22(1 ~ 1.41) | 1.24(0.97 ~ 1.4) | 1.09(0.85 ~ 1.26) | 1.19(0.94 ~ 1.35) | 0.13** |
LDL | 1.96 ± 0.5 | 2.16 ± 0.63 | 2.11 ± 0.48 | 2.54 ± 0.75 | 0.002* |
VLDL | 0.5(0.34 ~ 0.68) | 0.55(0.34 ~ 0.73) | 0.54(0.38 ~ 0.87) | 0.64(0.43 ~ 0.9) | 0.109** |
APoAI | 1.21(1.08 ~ 1.32) | 1.15(0.97 ~ 1.28) | 1.07(1 ~ 1.27) | 1.13(0.93 ~ 1.33) | 0.169** |
APoB | 0.75(0.6 ~ 0.9) | 0.86(0.66 ~ 0.98) | 0.79(0.69 ~ 0.89) | 0.91(0.76 ~ 1.12) | 0.015** |
ApoAI/ApoB | 1.66(1.33 ~ 1.94) | 1.37(1.09 ~ 1.87) | 1.34(1.2 ~ 1.61) | 1.19(0.98 ~ 1.46) | 0.002** |
Table 5
Multiple comparisons of LDL in males aged over 40 years among case and three control groups. The concentrations of LDL are expressed as the mean ± SD, and between-group differences were assessed by one-way ANOVA followed by Tamhane’s T2 test for multiple comparisons test (homogeneity of variance was not equal). Significance was accepted at p values < 0.05.
physical parameter | Sample 1(I)-Sample 2(J) | Mean Difference (I-J) | Std. Error | 95% Confidence Interval | P |
Lower Bound | Upper Bound |
LDL | GD-N | 0.58 | 0.15 | 0.18 | 0.99 | 0.001 |
GD-G | 0.38 | 0.13 | 0.02 | 0.74 | 0.030 |
GD-D | 0.43 | 0.13 | 0.07 | 0.80 | 0.011 |
Figure 2 The mean and standard deviation(SD) of the LDL level for the case(GD group) and three control groups(N, D, G groups), the mean and SD were shown as a bar chart.