Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Atherosclerosis constitutes one of the most frequent diseases and one of the important predisposing factor for atherosclerosis is lipid profile change. Androgen change lipid profile mainly high densitylipoprotein (HDL), and 1 mg finasteride tablets are used for treating androgenic hair loss through inhibition of 5-α reductase, and preventing convertion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) the most active derivative of testosterone in the other hands androgenic hair loss is considered a risk factor for atherosclerosis. this study was conducted in order to determine the impact of DHT suppression by 1mg finasteride tablets on lipid profile of patients with androgenic hair loss.

Method and materials: Twenty-five patients with androgenic hair loss were studied. The patients were prescribed one 1mg finasteride tablet daily. Fasting plasma levels of LDL, HDL, triglyceride, and total cholesterol of patients before therapy and after 3 and 6 months of therapy were measured. Nutritional status was evaluated. The study was conducted in the form of a before-after clinical trial. Data were analyzed using SPSS Software version 16.

Findings: A significant decreases in fasting plasma level of HDL was observed after 6 months of therapy (P<0.001). Moreover, a statistically significant rise in fasting plasma level of triglyceride was observed after 3 months of therapy (P=0.014). Plasma levels of LDL and total cholesterol were not altered significantly.

Conclusion: Our study demonstrated for the first time that using 1mg finasteride tablets to treat androgenic hair loss may lead to complications of the lipid profile through reducing HDL and increasing total cholesterol. Finasteride may decrease dihydrotestosterone and increased testosterone this change in lipid profile may be due to testosterone elevation by using finasteride.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is a conflict of interest.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.