Cadmium exposure and atherosclerotic carotid plaques –Results from the Malmö diet and Cancer study

Abstract

These results extend previous studies on cadmium exposure and clinical cardiovascular events by adding data on the association between cadmium and underlying atherosclerosis in humans. The role of smoking remains unclear. It may both cause residual confounding and be a source of pro-atherogenic cadmium exposure.

Cadmium, Carotid Atherosclerosis, and Incidence of Ischemic Stroke

“…In short, the bifurcation area of the right common carotid artery was scanned within a predefined “window” comprising 3 cm of the distal common carotid artery, the bifurcation, and 1 cm of the internal and external carotid arteries, respectively 15, 16. The presence of carotid plaque was defined as a focal thickening of the intima–media layer >1.2 mm and a plaque area >10 mm 2 8, 16. Intra‐ and interobserver variation analyses were performed regularly; the mean absolute difference for carotid intimal medial thickness between 2 measurements for the same observer was 9.0% (SD 7.2; r =0.77) and between 2 observers was 8.7% (SD 6.2, r =0.85) 16…”

“…In addition, we evaluated the joint effect of cadmium and carotid plaque by dividing the cohort into 4 groups according to cadmium (Q4 versus Q1–3) and plaque (yes versus no). The fourth quartile was chosen as cut‐off, based on previous population‐based studies of cadmium exposure and cardiovascular disease 4, 5, 6, 8. Interactions between cadmium (Q4 versus Q1–3) and carotid plaque were analyzed using a multiplicative interaction term in model 2.…”

“…High concentration of blood cadmium is associated with increased prevalence of carotid plaque 7, 8. A study of 64‐year‐old women reported relationships between cadmium in blood and urine, respectively, and increased plaque burden, both in cross‐sectional and longitudinal analyses 7.…”

Environmental factors in cardiovascular disease

“…Cadmium levels in blood or urine are associated with the incidence of and mortality from CVD, CHD, stroke, and HF. [201][202][203][204] Cadmium exposure has also been associated with CIMT in young women from Austria, 205 with carotid plaque development in middle-aged men and women from Sweden, 206 and with prevalent and incident peripheral arterial disease in US populations. 204,207 The major limitation of current evidence is that it does not identify whether the observed associations are independent effects of cadmium per se, or a reflection of the effects of smoking.…”

Cadmium Exposure is Associated with the Prevalence of Dyslipidemia

“…Plasma triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were measured using an automatic biochemical analyzer (Hitachi 7080, Tokyo, Japan) with regents purchased from Wako Pure Chemical Industries (Osaka, Japan). Blood cadmium was quantified by inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometry (ICP-MS, Thermo Fisher X-series 2, Houston, TX, USA) using the same method as described previously [18]. All the containers or tubes were pre-cleaned by overnight soaking in ultrapure grade 2% HNO 2 solution.…”