OBJECTIVE Cardiovascular (CV) risk relates to the blood flow velocity pattern in the brachial artery during hyperemia, especially to the hyperaemic systolic to diastolic mean blood flow velocity (SDFV) ratio. Here, we investigated the relations between SDFV in the brachial artery and different characteristics of carotid atherosclerosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS Data were collected from 1016 70-ye...

BACKGROUND The thickness of the arterial intima increases and that of the media decreases with increasing age and degree of atherosclerosis. Separate estimates of the individual intima and media layers might therefore be more appropriate than the commonly used method estimating the combined intima-media thickness (IMT). METHODS AND RESULTS One hundred consecutive 70-year-old subjects from the...

AIM To explore risk factors for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) as well as the association between toe blood pressure and subclinical and clinical central vascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHOD Toe brachial index (TBI) was cross-sectionally analyzed in 742 middle-aged (54-66 years) patients with type 2 diabetes as well as non-diabetic controls and related to other vascula...

BACKGROUND Rosacea is a chronic facial skin disease associated with excessive inflammatory response to various triggers. Although some studies have supported the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases in rosacea, it has not been completely accepted. OBJECTIVE We aimed to investigate epicardial fat thickness and carotid intima-media thickness as cardiovascular risk predictors in rosacea pat...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES In adults, C-reactive protein is a marker of cardiovascular risk. It is associated with both classical and metabolic risk factors and is a predictor of cardiovascular events. The aim was to investigate the relationship of the C-reactive protein concentration to classical cardiovascular risk factors, measures of adiposity subclinical atherosclerosis in children. MET...

To evaluate the association between common carotid intima-media thickness and noninvasively assessed atherosclerosis elsewhere in the carotid artery, we used data from the Rotterdam Study, a single-center population-based, prospective follow-up study among 7983 subjects aged 55 years or older. Baseline measurements included ultrasonographic evaluation of the vessel wall characteristics of the c...

OBJECTIVE Postprandial hyperglycemia observed in type 2 diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of strict glycemic control by nateglinide on common carotid far wall intima-media thickness in type 2 diabetic patients who were already under good glycemic control. METHODS AND RESULTS We performed an open labeled randomized prosp...

BACKGROUND There is paucity of knowledge concerning the specific age in youth when the associations of metabolic syndrome (MetS) begin to be operative. Thus, we investigated the relation of age to the associations of childhood MetS with adult MetS, type 2 diabetes mellitus and high carotid intima-media thickness. METHODS AND RESULTS Five thousand eight-hundred three participants were analyzed...

INTRODUCTION An important feature of hypertension is a reduction in large artery distensibility, which may be due to structural and functional adaptations. Black populations are particularly prone to the development of hypertension. We therefore compared the carotid characteristics between five-year sustained hypertensive and normotensive black South Africans, and investigated how carotid chara...

OBJECTIVES To explore whether endothelial function is related to bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS Consecutive adult SLE patients and age-, sex-, BMI- and smoking-status-matched healthy controls were studied. Subjects with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, renal impairment, dysthyroidism, history of or treatment for cardiova...