title: Egg consumption and coronary atherosclerotic burden.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To verify the association between egg consumption and coronary atherosclerotic burden.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cardiac catheterization laboratory.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adult patients referred for coronary angiography.
  
  
  METHODS
  Socio-demographic data (age, education level, and occupation), cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, systemic hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and family history of coronary artery disease), and egg-eating habits were assessed using a research questionnaire. Egg consumption was divided into three categories: less than one egg a week; one egg a week; and more than one egg a week. Coronary atherosclerotic burden was assessed by a blinded interventional cardiologist using the Friesinger Score (FS) obtained from the coronary angiography. This score varies from 0 to 15 and evaluated each of the three main coronary arteries separately. For this analysis, the FS was divided into three categories: 0-4, 5-9, and 10-15.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study sample was composed of 382 adult patients; 241 patients (63.3%) were male. The average age was 60.3 ± 10.8 years (range 23-89 years). The egg-eating category was inversely associated with dyslipidemia (p < 0.05) but not with the other cardiovascular risk factors. A significant association was found between egg consumption and FS (p < 0.05), showing that patients who ate more than one egg a week had a lower coronary atherosclerotic burden. By multivariate analysis, the atherosclerotic burden was independently associated with sex, age, hypertension and egg consumption.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this observational study of patients undergoing coronary angiography, the consumption of more than one egg per week was associated with a lower coronary atherosclerotic burden.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, School of Nutrition, Federal University of Santa Maria - UFSM, Av. Independência 3751, 98300.000 Palmeira das Missões, RS, Brazil. patriciachagas.ufsm@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Patrícia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chagas
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Caramori
authors.forename: Tatiana Pizzato
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Galdino
authors.forename: Christiano da Silveira de
authors.initials: Cda S
authors.lastname: Barcellos
authors.forename: Irênio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Carla Helena Augustin
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Schwanke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology*; D050171:Dyslipidemias / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004531:Eggs; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Angiography; CAD; Coronary Artery Disease; Coronary atherosclerosis burden; Egg consumption; FS; Friesinger Score; Nutrition