title: Sex-specific relationships between adiposity and anthropometric measures and carotid intima-media thickness in Koreans: the Healthy Twin Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Increased adiposity, shorter stature, shorter leg length and carotid intima-media thickening are associated with cardiovascular (CV) disease. This study aimed to evaluate the sex-specific phenotypic and genetic associations between adiposity and anthropometric measures and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT).
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured IMT at common carotid artery (CCA-IMT), carotid bifurcation and internal carotid artery (ICA-IMT) using B-mode ultrasound, and adiposity and anthropometric measures, including body mass index (BMI), height, leg length, waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio and percentage of body fat; we also assessed conventional CV risk factors among 706 Korean adults from the Healthy Twin Study. The associations were analyzed using quantitative genetic and linear mixed analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In linear mixed analyses, BMI and WC had independent associations with the IMT at CCA-IMT and ICA-IMT and CCA-IMT, respectively, after adjusting for age and conventional CV risk factors in men. By comparison, in women, adiposity and anthropometric measures were associated with carotid IMT only before adjusting for the covariates. In men, there were significant genetic correlations between BMI and CCA-IMT (ρ(G)=0.32±0.11), BMI and ICA-IMT (ρ(G)=0.35±0.11) and WC and ICA-IMT (ρ(G)=0.32±0.13) after adjusting for covariates, whereas in women the cross-trait genetic correlations were no longer significant after adjusting for the covariates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this Korean twins and families, we found sex-specific associations between adiposity and anthropometric measures and the IMT at each segment of the carotid artery, and BMI and WC in men can be indicators predicting carotid intima-media thickening regardless of age and CV risk factors.
authors: Department of Family Medicine, Samsung Medical Center and Center for Clinical Research, Samsung Biomedical Research Institute, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Y-M
authors: YM
authors: Song
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Lee
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Sung
authors: Y S
authors: YS
authors: Kim
authors: J Y
authors: JY
authors: Lee
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity / Q000235:genetics; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D017536:Carotid Artery, Common / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D014427:Twins / Q000235:genetics; D055105:Waist Circumference / Q000235:genetics