No abstract

Smokers with airflow limitation had exaggerated subclinical atherosclerosis. This study suggests that middle-aged men who are susceptible to COPD may also be susceptible to vascular atherosclerosis by smoking, and atherosclerotic change starts early in the disease process of COPD.

OBJECTIVE -Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) differ in their risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, but previous cross-sectional studies have suggested little difference in their levels of lipids or blood pressure. We compared the white blood cell (WBC) count between subjects with IFG and IGT.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -The subjects were 4,720 nondiabetic Japanese men aged 24 -84 years. Based on the 75-g oral glucose tolerance test, the subjects were classified into the following four groups: normal fasting glucose/normal glucose tolerance (n ϭ 3,753), isolated IFG (n ϭ 290), isolated IGT (n ϭ 476), and IFG/IGT (n ϭ 201). We compared the WBC count among the four groups and investigated variables that showed a significant association with the WBC count.RESULTS -The isolated IGT group had a significantly higher WBC count than the isolated IFG group (6,530 vs. 6,210/mm 3 , P Ͻ 0.05). By stepwise analyses, age, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, fasting insulin, and 2-h postchallenge plasma glucose (PG) showed an independent association with the WBC count (adjusted R 2 ϭ 0.057). In the analysis stratified by smoking status, the WBC count was independently associated with 2-h PG and triglycerides, irrespective of smoking status.CONCLUSIONS -Individuals with isolated IGT had a significantly higher WBC count than those with isolated IFG. The WBC count was associated with 2-h PG and various components of the metabolic syndrome.

As a means of estimating the extent of atherosclerosis in large arteries, our results show that both brachial ankle pulse wave velocity and cardio ankle vascular index are useful and that cardio ankle vascular index may have some advantages in its application to patients taking blood pressure-lowering medication because of the minimum effect of blood pressure on its measurement values. The cardio ankle vascular index has increased performance over brachial ankle pulse wave velocity in predicting the coronary artery disease.