Factors Significantly Associated With the Increased Prevalence of Carotid Atherosclerosis in a Northeast Chinese Middle-aged and Elderly Population

Abstract

Carotid atherosclerosis is associated with many serious cardiovascular diseases; hence, it is necessary to identify factors related to its occurrence in order to develop preventive and therapeutic strategies. This study was conducted to identify risk factors associated with carotid atherosclerosis among the population residing in Northeast China.This epidemiological survey was conducted in a representative group of relatively healthy community residents. All participants answered questions about their medical histories and underwent physical examination, blood biochemical analysis, and ultrasonography examinations of their necks and abdomens. The prevalence rates of carotid atherosclerosis under different factors and conditions were then analyzed.The results of this study showed that age, gender, and diabetes significantly affected the prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis in this Northeast Chinese population. In addition, gender-based subgroup analysis revealed additional factors correlated with the prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis in men or women, although their correlations were not significant in the overall population. While high serum TC and LDL-C levels were risk factors for carotid atherosclerosis in men, it showed no clear correlation with the prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis in women. In contrast, the prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis in female participants with high serum TG level, hypertension, obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease were higher than that of the control population, a trend not observed in male participants.Older age, male sex, and diabetes were independently associated with increased risk of carotid atherosclerosis in Northeast China. These findings could lead to improved screening for carotid atherosclerosis for better disease management.

Carotid Atherosclerosis Detected by Ultrasonography: A National Cross‐Sectional Study

“…Similar to many previous studies,22, 33, 34, 35, 36 we found that traditional risk factors, including older age, male sex, smoking, physical inactivity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia, were significantly associated with CA. Of all risk factors, aging was strongly associated with atherosclerotic lesions 36, 37, 38.…”

“…Of all risk factors, aging was strongly associated with atherosclerotic lesions 36, 37, 38. Men had a higher prevalence of carotid lesions than women, consistent with previous studies 22, 38. Sex‐related differences might be caused by differential susceptibility to risk factors.…”

“…Of the studies that excluded people with prior CVDs, the prevalence of carotid plaque was 9.7% in villages in Xinjiang,17 18.8% in Shanghai city,18 16.8% to 30.6% in Nanjing city,19 and 41.5% in a low‐income rural community in Tianjin 20. The reported overall prevalence of CA or increased IMT was from 11.2% in a rural community in Shandong21 to as high as 40.3% in Shenyang city 22. Different approaches in participant sampling and selection, ultrasound techniques, and diagnosis criteria may cause such substantial differences in the reported prevalence of CA and carotid plaque, although it is generally impossible to be certain based on published literature.…”

“…To compare our results with previous studies, we searched PubMed to identify population‐based studies that reported the prevalence of CA detected by ultrasound in China, and summarized findings are shown in Table 4. Of these previous studies,16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 only the CKB (China Kadoorie Biobank) study included a large sample of participants (N=24 822) from multiple geographic regions in China16; all other studies were geographically local. The CKB study reported that the overall prevalence of carotid plaque was 31%, which was much higher than the prevalence of 13.9% in the present study; however, the CKB study included participants with stroke (5.4%) or coronary heart disease (7.5%).…”

Relationship between carotid artery sclerosis and blood pressure variability in essential hypertension patients

“…Among them, hypertension is one of the most closely related to CAS [1][2]. Published studies have confirmed that most patients with hypertension have different degrees of CAS [3][4].…”