A cohort study on risk factors for carotid atherosclerosis and prediction of cardiovascular risk

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We have conducted cross-sectional and prospective nested-case control studies to investigate risk factors for carotid atherosclerosis and the predictive value of carotid atherosclerosis for the risk of caridiovascular disease. The subjects were 234 men aged 60-74 in Akita rural community, 506 men aged 60-74 in Ibaraki rural community, 302 men aged 60-74 in Kochi rural community, 229 men aged 60-74 in the suburb of Osaka, 3,998men and women aged 40-74 in Suita city of which 1,761 men and women were surveyed again after 2 to 6 years of the baseline survey.Strong risk factors for carotid atherosclerosis were hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and smoking and these association were more evident when the values in the past surveys were taken into account. Inflamatory makers, I.e., serum high-sensitive C-reactive and an adhesion molecle, I.e. serum E selectin were associated significantly with carotid atherosclerosis. Polymorphism of angiotensionogen gene were not associated with carotid atherosclerosis.Incident stroke cases tended to have higher intima-media thickness in carotid arteries than controls. However, the number of cases were limted and the multivariate analysis was not conducted. In conclusion, the examination of carotid atherosclerosis is a promising procedure to evaluate atherosclerosis and maybe to predict the risk of stroke among Japanese.