The contribution of obesity to carotid atherosclerotic plaque burden in a general population sample in Norway: The Tromsø Study

Abstract

Adiposity is more consistently associated with extent of plaque burden than with whether an individual does or does not have any plaque. There was evidence that established biomarkers mediate much of this association. Abdominal adiposity appears to show the strongest effect.

The association between anthropometric measures of adiposity and the progression of carotid atherosclerosis

“…Our results suggest that abdominal obesity in late adulthood might contribute to the progression of carotid plaque burden with larger effect estimates than general obesity, imposing an excess risk on the progression of atherosclerosis. This finding concurs with our previous findings from a cross-sectional analysis, although considerable overlap of CIs prevents us from drawing definitive conclusions [13].…”

“…In an earlier investigation of cross-sectional data from the population-based Tromsø Study, we have shown that abdominal obesity was more closely associated with carotid plaque burden assessed by total plaque area (TPA) than general obesity [13]. We also found that cardiometabolic risk factors such as hyperlipidemia, glucose intolerance, and hypertension mediated much of this association.…”

Atherosclerotic carotid artery disease and white matter disease in subjects without a history of cerebral infarction or transient cerebral ischemia

“…As the present study has demonstrated, CAD is in turn associated in different ways with so-called "major" traditional risk factors, depending on the criterion or atheromatous disease characteristics. 1,9,14,[25][26][27][28][29] A similar case can be described in brain white matter disease (e.g., leukopathy or leukoaraiosis), as defined by tomography or MRI and according to characteristics of its distribution and extension. [29][30][31] As it has been reported, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] in the present analysis obesity was not found to be an independent risk factor for CAD or leukopathy.…”

“…1 Despite its low relative frequency, CAD is the cause of up to 30 % of ischemic stroke cases (cerebral infarction or transient ischemic attack). 2,6,7,10,11 Moreover, the frequency of atheromatous and atherothrombotic disease in other arterial beds of subjects who suffer from CAD is very high, 13 as well as mental function impairment, 14 hence CAD clinical importance going beyond its causal relationship with ischemic stroke.…”

Effect of adiposity on differences in carotid plaque burden in studies conducted in Norway and Russia: a cross-sectional analysis of two populations at very different risk of cardiovascular mortality

“…Our previous study using Tromsø Study fifth survey has shown that abdominal adiposity was more closely associated with carotid plaque burden than BMI. 13 Furthermore, WHR showed the larger effect size than waist circumference (WC) and waist to height ratio.…”