Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Johnsen, Stein Harald
• Forsdahl, Signe Helene
• Singh, Kulbir
• Jacobsen, Bjarne Koster

Titel

Atherosclerosis in abdominal aortic aneurysms: a causal event or a process running in parallel? The Tromsø study

Ist Teil von

• Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology, 2010-06, Vol.30 (6), p.1263-1268

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2010

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) formation is poorly understood. We investigated the relationship between carotid, femoral, and coronary atherosclerosis and abdominal aortic diameter, and whether atherosclerosis was a risk marker for AAA. Ultrasound of the right carotid artery, the common femoral artery, and the abdominal aorta was performed in 6446 men and women from a general population. The burden of atherosclerosis was assessed as carotid total plaque area, common femoral lumen diameter, and self-reported coronary heart disease. An AAA was defined as maximal infrarenal aortic diameter > or =30 mm. No dose-response relationship was found between carotid atherosclerosis and abdominal aortic diameter <27 mm. However, significantly more atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease was found in aortic diameter > or =27 mm and in AAAs. The age- and sex-adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% CI) for AAA in the top total plaque area quintile was 2.3 (1.5 to 3.4), as compared with subjects without plaques. The adjusted OR (95% CI) was 1.7 (1.1 to 2.6). No independent association was found between femoral lumen diameter and AAA. The lack of a consistent dose-response relationship between atherosclerosis and abdominal aortic diameter suggests that atherosclerosis may not be a causal event in AAA but develops in parallel with or secondary to aneurismal dilatation.