PARENTS’ LONGEVITY AS PREDICTOR OF CAROTID ATHEROSCLEROSIS

Traditional risk factors e.g. hyperlipidaemia, hypertension, diabetes, and cigarette smoking account for not more than half of the morbidity and mortality for coronary heart disease. Studies have also suggested that cardiovascular disease may have a familial pattern. In the present study, we examined the relationship between parental longevity and intima-media thickeness (IMT) of carotid arteries, a measurable index of carotid and even coronary atherosclerosis. Ultrasonic, clinical and anamnestic values of 565 hyperlipidemic patients (age 20-80y) attending a Lipid Clinic in Milan have been analysed. Mean Maximal-IMT (MM-IMT) and Maximal-IMT (Max-IMT) were assessed by B-Mode ultrasonography (Biosound 2000II) and measured in real time. Age-adjusted MM-IMT and Max-IMT strongly correlated with father's, mother's and mean parent's ages both after exclusion of patients whose parents died for reasons other than cardiovascular disease as well as in the overall population. The stepwise multiple regression analysis, carried out with IMTs as dependent variables and various atherosclerosis risk factors (including mother's and father's ages) as independent, identified the ages of both parents as independent IMT predictors. (vedi tabella allegata come pdf)The negative association between IMTs and the ages of both parents was further confirmed also after stratification of patients into 3 classes of parents’ ages (<45y, 45-64y, 65y). These data suggest that age of parents’ death for cardiovascular disease is an independent predictor of carotid IMT and, as such, might be considered as a further cardiovascular risk factor.