BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the Framingham Cardiovascular Risk Profile and carotid artery intima-media thickness are associated with cortical volume and thickness. METHODS Consecutive subjects participating in a prospective cohort study of aging and mild cognitive impairment enriched for vascular risk factors for atherosclerosis underwent struct...

BACKGROUND Diabetes mellitus type 1 is the most common endocrine metabolic disorder occurring in childhood and adolescence due to the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells as a result of various environmental factors interacting with an underlying genetic predisposition. Diabetes is a risk factor for early onset atherosclerosis, and the high mortality rate seen in these patients is pa...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Carotid intima-media thickness and electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy are 2 subclinical cardiovascular disease measures associated with increased risk of total and ischemic strokes. Increased intima-media thickness and electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy also may reflect end-organ hypertensive effects. Information is scant on the associations ...

Background and Purpose—Carotid atherosclerosis has been associated with increased risk of stroke and poorer cognitive performance in older adults. The relation of carotid atherosclerosis to cognitive impairment and MRI indices of ischemia and aging in midlife is less clear. Methods—We studied 1975 Framingham Offspring Study participants free of stroke and dementia with available carotid ultraso...

BACKGROUND The mechanisms by which smoking cessation reduces cardiovascular disease risk are unclear. We evaluated longitudinal changes in carotid intima-media thickness among current smokers enrolled in a prospective, randomized smoking cessation clinical trial. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Subjects were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 5 smoking cessatio...

Exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity to behavioral challenges among otherwise healthy individuals has been associated with carotid atherosclerosis. We evaluated whether a similar relationship exists among hypertensives, who are at a heightened atherosclerotic risk. Untreated, hypertensive men (n=251; age range, 40 to 70 years; 197 white, 54 black) completed a standardized battery of behavioral...

OBJECTIVE Data on the effect of lipid-lowering drugs (LLD) on carotid atherosclerosis outside clinical trials are limited. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of LLD on change in carotid intima media thickness and total plaque area in a general population. APPROACH AND RESULTS Subjects were 1532 women and 1442 men who participated in a longitudinal population-based study with ul...

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between the amount and distribution of body fat and the carotid intima-media thickness to explore whether coronary artery disease risk may be mediated through effects on the amount of fat mass in older adults. [Subjects and Methods] A total of 200 elderly females was participated. The percentage of body fat mass was measured by th...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association of the V249I and T280M variants of CX3CR1 fractalkine gene with carotid intima-media thickness in Mexican subjects with and without type 2 diabetes. METHODS We analyzed the V249I and T280M variants of the CX3CR1 receptor by TaqMan assays in 111 subjects with type 2 diabetes and 109 healthy controls. Hemoglobin A1c, glucose, and lipid profile were determin...

OBJECTIVE Aberrations in apolipoprotein (apo) metabolism and increased systemic inflammation associate with the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and may contribute to its atherogenicity. We examined whether the association between carotid atherosclerosis and MetS in a population of young adults is mediated by apoB and apoA-I and/or by inflammatory markers C-reactive protein and type II secretory phosp...