Relationship between breast arterial calcifications detected on mammography and brachial artery intima-media thickness.
OBJECTIVE
Although breast arterial calcification (BAC) was shown to be related with coronary artery disease (CAD), hypertension (HT), diabetes mellitus (DM) and carotid intima-media thickness (C-IMT), but the association between BAC and brachial intima-media thickness (B-IMT) has not been evaluated yet. Our aim was to investigate whether associations existed between BAC and measure B-IMT and atherosclerosis (AS) by comparing these patients with healthy control subjects.


METHODS
A Total of 75 patients were included in the study. Subjects with or without BAC were assigned into one of two groups and those with a BAC were graded. Main brachial artery IMT was measured.


RESULTS
When the effect of age was partialled out statistically, we found a statistically significant difference in mean B-IMT between BAC (+) (0.54 ± 0.09) and BAC (-) (0.45 ± 0.08) groups (p = 0.001) after the groups were adjusted for age.


CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, even though the relationship between B-IMT and BAC was significant, like the relationship between C-IMT and BAC, significant age difference between BAC (+) and BAC (-) groups and no significant relationship between BAC and time after menopause, after adjustment for age, suggest a strong association between BAC and age rather than AS. This can be elucidated by pathological correlation studies in larger series of subjects.
Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Duzce University, Duzce, Turkey. besirerdogmus@yahoo.com
Besir
B
Erdogmus
Ramazan
R
Buyukkaya
Ayla
A
Buyukkaya
Burhan
B
Yazıcı
D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001940:Breast / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D017539:Tunica Intima / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*