ECE2013 Poster Presentations Cardiovascular Endocrinology & Lipid Metabolism (41 abstracts)
Subclinical atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk in healthy, young menopausal women
Eleni Armeni 1 , Kimon Stamatelopoulos 2 , Georgios Georgiopoulos 2 , Evangelia Kouskouni 3 , Maria Creatsa 1 , Andreas Alexandrou 1 , Christos Papamichael 2 & Irene Lambrinoudaki 1
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Aretaieio Hospital, University of Athens, Athens, Attiki, Greece; 2Department of Therapeutics, Alexandra Hospital, University of Athens, Athens, Attiki, Greece; 3Biochemical Laboratory, University of Athens, Aretaieio Hospital, Athens, Attiki, Greece.
Introduction: Delayed diagnosis of a cardiovascular event is related with higher case-fatality rate in women as compared to men. In fact, accumulating evidence supports an association between the menopausal status and the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). We aimed to assess the extent of subclinical vascular disorders in young, healthy postmenopausal women, with respect to the calculated cardiovascular risk.
Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited 120 healthy, young postmenopausal women without clinically overt CVD or diabetes, classified as not high-risk by the Heartscore. In addition to risk factors used for Heartscore calculations, we assessed menopausal age and associated metabolic risk factors (e.g. triglycerides, waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, and HOMA-IR. Carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity, carotid and femoral intima–media thickness in the abnormal range as well as atheromatous plaques both in carotid and femoral arteries were used to define the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis.
Results: Subclinical atherosclerosis was identified in up to 55% of women. In addition, presence of at least one plaque in carotid arteries was identified in up to 22.5% of women. Subjects with subclinical atherosclerosis had higher age and menopausal age, blood pressure and HOMA-IR. By multivariate analysis menopausal age (P value=0.007) and systolic blood pressure (P value=0.021) independently determined subclinical atherosclerosis while 79% of intermediate-risk women (Heartscore 2–4.9%) being in menopause for at least 4 years would be reclassified to a higher risk for the presence of atherosclerosis.
Conclusion: Subclinical atherosclerosis was highly prevalent in postmenopausal women with low to medium Heartscore. This discrepancy between the prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis and calculated risk may be related to the risk factors determining atherosclerosis in this population, which are not included in HS calculations, like the menopausal status.
Article tools
My recent searches
My recently viewed abstracts
Authors
Endocrine Abstracts
ISSN 1470-3947 (print) | ISSN 1479-6848 (online)
© Bioscientifica 2024 |
Privacy policy |
Cookie settings
BiosciAbstracts
Bioscientifica Abstracts is the gateway to a series of products that provide a permanent, citable record of abstracts for biomedical and life science conferences.
Find out more