Background and Purpose—Adiponectin is an insulin-sensitizing plasma protein expressed in adipose tissue and suggested to play a role in atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Data are lacking on the relationship between adiponectin and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) in ethnically heterogeneous populations. We examined the relationship between adiponectin and IMT, a marker of atherosc...

BACKGROUND A specific inspiratory muscle 'warm-up' (IWU) prior to assessment of maximal inspiratory mouth pressure (PI(max)) may reduce the number of measurements required to obtain reproducible, representative estimates of PI(max). The influence of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) upon this phenomenon is unknown. OBJECTIVE Compare the impact of an IWU on the between- and within-day reliabil...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether several different measures of carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) progression are associated with subsequent vascular events and whether such associations are independent of baseline carotid atherosclerotic profile and Framingham risk factors. APPROACH AND RESULTS A longitudinal cohort study (the Carotid Intima Media Thickness [IMT] and IMT-Progression as Pre...

BACKGROUND An increased leukocyte count is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events, but the association between leukocyte subtype counts and carotid atherosclerosis in patients with diabetes has not been determined. We therefore investigated the correlation between leukocyte subtype counts and intima-media thickness of the common carotid artery (CCA-IMT) in subjects with type 2 dia...

BACKGROUND Kidney transplant recipients have high cardiovascular risk, and vascular inflammation may play an important role. We explored whether the inflammatory state in the vessel wall was related to carotid intima-media thickness (c-IMT) and patient survival following kidney transplantation. METHODS In this prospective observational cohort study we measured c-IMT and expression of proinfla...

OBJECTIVE Cardiovascular diseases are associated with impaired flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) and increase in carotid intima-media thickness (IMT). Both FMD and IMT are independent predictors for cardiovascular outcomes. When measuring FMD and nitroglycerine-induced vasodilation in the brachial artery, IMT can also be simultaneously assessed in the same brachial artery. The purpose of this st...

BACKGROUND Increased carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) is a non-invasive marker of systemic arterial disease. Increased IMT has been associated with atherosclerosis, abnormal arterial mechanics, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Given evidence of a relationship between cardiovascular health and attention-executive-psychomotor functioning, the purpose of this study was to examine IMT ...

OBJECTIVE To examine whether a 10-year change in occupational standing is related to carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) 5 years later. METHODS Data were obtained from 2350 participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study. Occupational standing was measured at the Year 5 and 15 CARDIA follow-up examinations when participants were 30.2 (standard devia...

AIM We statistically investigated whether the impact of cardiovascular risk factors on arterial stiffness would be different from that on arterial wall thickness. METHODS We analyzed 1648 Japanese type 2 diabetic patients. Arterial stiffness was evaluated by pulse wave verbosity (PWV) and wall thickness was assessed with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) by ultrasonography. We developed a ...