title: Arterial stiffness and related variables across menopausal status: an epidemiologic study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if postmenopausal women have different arterial stiffness, blood pressure (BP) values, or metabolic patterns in comparison to fertile women and to men at a population level.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a population-based epidemiologic study of 1853 representative men and women aged 18-95 years. Clinostatic humeral BP was measured using Omron 705CP. Aortic BP, augmentation index (AI), and pulse wave velocity (PWV) were determined using applanation tonometry. Body mass index (BMI) and subscapular skinfold thickness were used as measures of adiposity. Fasting and postload blood glucose, homeostasis model assessment (HOMA), low-density and high-density lipoprotein serum cholesterol (LDL-C and HDL-C) and triglycerides were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Age was higher in postmenopausal women than in fertile women (68.8 ± 9.5 vs. 35.7 ± 10.2 years, p<0.001), and BMI was 16% higher (p<0.01) in the postmenopausal women after age adjustment. Humeral and aortic BP, carotid and radial AI, carotid-femoral PWV, BMI, LDL-C, LDL-C/HDL ratio, triglycerides, glucose tolerance, HOMA, and skinfold thickness were apparently higher in postmenopausal than in fertile women. Using multivariate analysis, however, all these differences were abolished after adjusting for confounders (age and, when appropriate, BMI), except for LDL-C, which remained 19% higher (p<0.01) in postmenopausal women than in fertile women after adjusting for many confounders (age, BMI, cholesterol, ethanol intake, caloric intake, and triiodothyronine).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Only LDL-C increases in postmenopausal women, whereas other differences attributed to menopause, including BP and arterial stiffness, seem to be confounding effects of age and BMI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Padova, Padova, Italy. edoardo.casiglia@unipd.it
authors.forename: Edoardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Casiglia
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tikhonoff
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Boschetti
authors.forename: Nunzia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazza
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Caffi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Palatini
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood; D004452:Echocardiography; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D017698:Postmenopause / Q000502:physiology*; D011673:Pulsatile Flow / Q000502:physiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012885:Skinfold Thickness; D059289:Vascular Stiffness / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D002784:Cholesterol