Skip Navigation


European Heart Journal Advance Access originally published online on September 19, 2006
European Heart Journal 2006 27(20):2481; doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehl262
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
27/20/2481    most recent
ehl262v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rumboldt, M.
Right arrow Articles by Pesenti, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Rumboldt, M.
Right arrow Articles by Pesenti, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The European Society of Cardiology 2006. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Association between the metabolic syndrome and parental history of premature cardiovascular disease

Mirjana Rumboldt

Split University School of Medicine
Soltanska 2
21000 Split
Croatia

Zvonko Rumboldt

Split University School of Medicine
Soltanska 2
21000 Split
Croatia
E-mail address: zr{at}mefst.hr

Serafina Pesenti

Split University School of Medicine
Soltanska 2
21000 Split
Croatia

The recent study by Dallongeville et al.1 on 390 men and 281 women with the metabolic syndrome (MS) according to the NCEP III criteria clearly showed that parental premature cardiovascular disease was associated with their offspring's MS, particularly in women. Herewith we present additional data in proof.

In a study of 55 persons with premature coronary heart disease (i.e. documented myocardial infarction before their age of 45; 39.9±4.2 years), we have compared their 97 offspring with a random sample of 139 school children of the same age (14.2±0.6 years), all from Split, Croatia.2 Similar to the results of Dallongeville et al.,1 we have observed significant differences in terms of MS and other cardiovascular risk factors between these ‘risky’ children and their controls, as shown in the table.


Control children (n=139) Premature AMI offspring (n=97)
Relative weight (%)* 99.5±11.2 103.8±15.2**
Plasma cholesterol (mmolL) 4.4±0.6 5.2±1.1**
Systolic blood pressure (mmHg) 114.3±8.5 116.6±15.3**
Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg) 73.6±7.3 74.3±12.7**

*Body mass in kilogram as per cent of ideal agesex weight.

**P<0.05 (two-tailed, unpaired t-test).

Unfortunately, we did not take their waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio and we did not measure their triglycerides or HDL cholesterol. However, the observed differences became even more striking when out of these 97 ‘stigmatized’ children were assessed those 50 with at least one additional cardiovascular risk factor.2 For instance, arterial hypertension was present in 46.2% and smoking in 51.3% of such children.

The detected tracking and clustering phenomena1,2 underscore the association of MS and other contributors to familial aggregation of propensity to cardiovascular disease, stressing the importance of early detection for timely intervention, consisting mostly of dietary modifications and other life-style measures. It is not yet clear which proportion of the MS components is hereditary and which is environmentally andor microsocially induced. The just launched, multinational INTER-HEART 2 study3 attempts to answer these questions.

References

  1. Dallongeville J, Grupposo M-C, Cottel D, Ferrières J, Arveiler D, Bingham A, Ruidavets JB, Haas B, Ducimetiere P, Amouyel P. (2006) Association between the metabolic syndrome and parental history of premature cardiovascular disease. Eur Heart J 27:722–728.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  2. Rumboldt M, Rumboldt Z, Pesenti S. (2003) Premature parental heart attack is heralding elevated risk in their offspring. Coll Antropol 27:221–228.[Web of Science][Medline]
  3. Rumboldt Z. (2005) INTER-HEART: a global study of cardiovascular risk factors. In Vuletic S, Kern J, Heim I, Strnad M (Eds.). Spatial Distribution of Population Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Croatia(AMZH, Zagreb) pp. 12–13.

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?



This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
27/20/2481    most recent
ehl262v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rumboldt, M.
Right arrow Articles by Pesenti, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Rumboldt, M.
Right arrow Articles by Pesenti, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?