Women More Likely Than Men to Have Subclinical Aortic Atherosclerosis
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jan 18 - Among people without hypertension, women have more subclinical aortic atherosclerosis than men do, according to a report in the January issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.
\"Despite the delay in clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, cardiovascular MRI (CMR) measures of subclinical atherosclerosis are at least as common in young and middle-aged women as in men,\" Dr. Warren J. Manning told Reuters Health.
Dr. Manning from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts and colleagues sought to determine the relationship of age, sex, and hypertension to the prevalence and burden of aortic atherosclerosis among 1726 participants in the Framingham Heart Study.
Nearly half (46%) of the 1526 subjects without CVD had aortic plaque on CMR, the authors report, and aortic plaque was 7 times more prevalent in the abdomen than in the thorax.
In the subset of no-CVD subjects without hypertension, the prevalence of abdominal aortic plaque, the prevalence of any aortic plaque, and total plaque volume were significantly greater in women than in men. There was no gender difference in these measures among hypertensive individuals.
\"We did not anticipate this, as data suggest that women have a decade delay in the development of clinical CVD syndromes,\" Dr. Manning said. \"We had thought there would be a similar delay in subclinical atherosclerosis.\"
In all groups, the prevalence of atherosclerosis increased with age, the report indicates, and aortic plaque prevalence was higher in the hypertensive group than in the no-hypertension group.
\"Hypertension is associated with increased subclinical atherosclerosis, but nearly half of non-hypertensive subjects have MR evidence of subclinical atherosclerosis,\" Dr. Manning concluded. \"Though unproven, we hypothesize that enhanced primary prevention treatments of patients with subclinical atherosclerosis will lead to a reduction in subsequent clinical events.\"
Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2008;28:155-159.
“虽然出现临床心血管事件较迟,但年轻到中年女性心血管磁共振显示的亚临床性主动脉粥样硬化至少与男性一样普遍。” Warren J. Manning告诉路透社健康。
1526名无心血管事件的患者中,将近一半(46%)心血管磁共振显示有主动脉粥样硬化,作者报道,腹主动脉斑块是胸主动脉的7倍。 |