Association between elevated plasma total homocysteine and increased common carotid artery wall thickness.
Homocysteine is increasingly recognized as a risk factor for atherothrombotic arterial diseases. We investigated the relation between plasma concentrations of total homocysteine (tHcy) and common carotid artery intima-media wall thickness, measured by B-mode ultrasonography, in 513 asymptomatic men and women from eastern Finland aged 45-69 years. The subjects were examined in 1994-95 at the baseline of the Antioxidant Supplementation in Atherosclerosis Prevention (ASAP) study, a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled two by two factorial trial on the effect of vitamin E and C supplementation in the prevention of atherosclerotic progression. The subjects were assigned into two categories according to the plasma tHcy concentration; concentration over 11.5 micromol/L (highest quartile) or concentration below 11.5 micromol/L. In this study population the mean plasma tHcy concentration was 10.0 micromol/L, and the prevalence of plasma tHcy concentration exceeding 11.5 micromol/L was 33% in men and 18% in women. The adjusted mean intima-media thickness of the right and left common carotid arteries was 1.12 mm in men with elevated plasma tHcy concentration and 1.02 mm in men with a plasma tHcy concentration below 11.5 micromol/L (P = 0.029). In women there was no significant difference. We conclude that elevated plasma tHcy concentrations are associated with early atherosclerosis, as manifested by increased common carotid artery intima-media wall thickness, in middle-aged eastern Finnish men.
Research Institute of Public Health, University of Kuopio, Finland.
S
S
Voutilainen
G
G
Alfthan
K
K
Nyyssönen
R
R
Salonen
J T
JT
Salonen
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D017536:Carotid Artery, Common / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D002537:Intracranial Arteriosclerosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014810:Vitamin E / Q000627:therapeutic use
D006710:Homocysteine; D014810:Vitamin E; D001205:Ascorbic Acid