Estrogen Replacement Therapy Reduces the Progression of Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Healthy Postmenopausal Women Without Preexisting Cardiovascular Disease To the Editor: Two articles have appeared in Circulation1,2 that have cited the Estrogen in the Prevention of Atherosclerosis Trial (EPAT)3 as supportive evidence that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has no benefit on atherosclerosis in...

BACKGROUND A growing body of evidence links coronary artery atherosclerosis and calcification to osteoporosis in women. The endothelium plays a critical role in maintaining vascular integrity and may play a role in bone metabolism. We aimed to determine whether early coronary atherosclerosis, as detected by coronary microvascular endothelial dysfunction (CMED), predicts the development of osteo...

OBJECTIVES The present study examined the association of estrogen (E2) and the inflammatory response of endothelium in coronary artery disease (CAD) by measuring circulating cellular adhesion molecules (cCAMs) in subjects with atherosclerosis. BACKGROUND Atherosclerotic plaque demonstrates features similar to inflammation. Endothelial cell activation by inflammatory cytokines induces expressi...

OBJECTIVE To study the endogenous sex hormone levels in natural postmenopausal women and their association with the presence of internal carotid artery (ICA) atherosclerosis. DESIGN Case-control study METHODS We compared 56 patients with severe ICA atherosclerosis referred for carotid artery endarterectomy (CEA) with 56 age-matched control subjects free of severe atherosclerotic disease. Th...

Introduction Growing evidence suggests that elevated plasma levels of total homocysteine (tHcy) are associated not only with arterial thrombosis and atherosclerosis but also with venous thrombosis [ 1,2]. tHcy levels appear to be related to oestrogen status. Premenopausal women have lower levels than postmenopausal women and men. In addition, plasma tHcy has been reported to decrease in pregnan...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE This study was designed to investigate whether black women who underwent hysterectomy only (n = 59) or hysterectomy plus bilateral oophorectomy (n=25) were at increased risk of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis compared with black women who underwent natural menopause (n = 54). The effects of both surgery and menopausal status were evaluated. METHODS Women aged 34 to ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In women, symptoms of coronary artery disease are delayed by 10 to 15 years in comparison with men, most likely because of the protective effect of ovarian hormones. This report compares the prevalence and degree of carotid atherosclerosis between 292 premenopausal women and 294 women at 5 to 8 years after menopause. METHODS Scans were performed in the same laboratory o...

Postmenopausal women are at increased risk of CVD: the increased serum ferritin level may be involved in the pathogenesis. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship of ferritin and carotid atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women. A total of 1178 postmenopausal women (mean age, 60·8 years) were enrolled from the Changfeng Study. A standard interview, anthropometric measurem...

Coronary atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction in postmenopausal women have been linked to inflammation and reduced nitric oxide (NO) formation. Natural estrogen exerts protective effects on both processes, yet also displays uterotrophic activity. Here, we used genetic and pharmacologic approaches to investigate the role of the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) in atherosclerosis. ...

It has been generally accepted that high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level decreases with menopause in women. However, recent reports show different results. There is very little data concerning perimenopausal women. To verify these findings, lipids and lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] levels were compared among pre-, peri- and postmenopausal women of similar mean ages. Postmenopausal women h...