Epidemiological study on carotid atherosclerosis and it related factors for the prevention of cardiovascular disease

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We applied carotid sonography to cardiovascular risk surveys to detect high risk individuals of ishemic stroke and heart disease and to achieve their prevention. The surveyed populations were northeast rural, southwest, and central rural communities and Osaka urban suburbs and urban employees. The incidence of ischemic stroke was high in northeast rural community, intermediate in southwest and central rural communities, and low in rural suburbs and employees. The incidence of ischemic heart disease was higher in urban employees than in the other populations. Carotid sonography was conducted in 1,286 men aged 50-74, and examined the relations with conventional cardiovascular risk factors and plasma fibrinogen. The proportion of a high mean intima-medial complex and/or multiple plaques was higher in northeast rural community than in other populations, which corresponded with the higher blood pressure levels and the higher incidence of ischemic stroke. Carotid atherosclerosis was associated with low HDL-cholesterol levels, smoking, diabetes mellitus, but not related with serum total cholesterol or alcohol intake.Plasma fibrinogen was higher among the patients of ischemic heart disease than among controls. Prospective study of 1,1920 men and women aged 40 and over confirmed that plasma fibrinogen was an independent risk factor for ischemic heart disease. These results support the usefulness of carotid sonogaphy to predict the risk of ischemic cardiovascular disease.