INTRODUCTION Cardiovascular diseases, especially heart disease and stroke are the cause of more than a half of the total number of deaths in Serbia. OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to determine sex differences of atherosclerotic risk factors in patients with symptomatic carotid disease. METHODS The cross-sectional study, involving 657 consecutive patients with verified carotid a...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Subclinical atherosclerotic plaque is an important marker of increased vascular risk. Identifying factors underlying the variability in burden of atherosclerotic carotid plaque unexplained by traditional vascular risk factors may help target novel preventive strategies. METHODS As a part of the carotid substudy of the Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS), 1790 stroke-free i...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Valvular atherosclerosis is defined as extra- and intracellular lipid deposition, thickening of the fibrosa layer, decreased thickness of the spongiosa, and chronic inflammation. We sought to identify the predictive factors for valvular atherosclerosis and assess the possible associations between valvular atherosclerosis and coronary atherosclerosis using the Gensini score. ...

Background and Purpose—Intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) remains a challenge for stroke primary and secondary prevention. Molecular pathways involved in the development of ICAD from its asymptomatic stages are largely unknown. In our population-based study, we aimed to compare the risk factor and biomarker profiles associated with intracranial and extracranial asymptomatic cerebral at...

Homocysteine, a sulfur-containing amino acid, is an intermediate during the conversion of methionine to cysteine. Homocysteine can cause vascular injury and atherosclerotic plaque instability. In addition, homocysteine may be directly correlated with hyperlipidemia and lipoprotein(a) and inversely with highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol. However, the results regarding the association of homocy...

BACKGROUND Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events, but its use for prediction of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in combination with conventional risk factors has not been well defined. METHODS AND RESULTS To understand the effect of HbA1C on CVD risk in the context of other CVD risk factors, we analyzed HbA1C and other CVD risk factor measuremen...