Skip Navigation



European Heart Journal Advance Access published online on October 9, 2008
European Heart Journal, doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehn439
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
29/22/2782    most recent
ehn439v1
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 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 Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Erbel, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Erbel, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2008. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that the original authorship is properly and fully attributed; the Journal, Learned Society and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with correct citation details given; if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Signs of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis in relation to risk factor distribution in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study (HNR)

Raimund Erbel1,*, Joseph A.C. Delaney2, Nils Lehmann3, Robyn L. McClelland2, Stefan Möhlenkamp1, Richard A. Kronmal2, Axel Schmermund4, Susanne Moebus3, Nico Dragano5, Andreas Stang6, Karl-Heinz Jöckel3, Matthew J. Budoff7 on behalf of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and the Investigator Group of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study

1 Department of Cardiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstr 55, D-45122 Essen, Germany
2 Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
3 Institut of Medical Informatics, Biometry, and Epidemiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
4 Cardiac Center Bethanien, Frankfurt, Germany
5 Institut of Medical Sociology, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
6 Institute of Medical Epidemiology, Biometry, and Informatics, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
7 Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor University of California Los Angeles, Torrance, CA 90502, USA

Received 24 June 2008; revised 10 August 2008; accepted 12 September 2008.

* Corresponding author. Tel: +49 201 723 4800, Fax: +49 201 723 5401, Email: erbel{at}uk-essen.de, URL: www.wdhz.de

Aims: Modern imaging technology allows us the visualization of coronary artery calcification (CAC), a marker of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. The prevalence, quantity, and risk factors for CAC were compared between two studies with similar imaging protocols but different source populations: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study (HNR).

Methods and results: The measured CAC in 2220 MESA participants were compared with those in 3126 HNR participants with the inclusion criteria such as age 45–75 years, Caucasian race, and free of baseline cardiovascular disease. Despite similar mean levels of CAC of 244.6 among participants in MESA and of 240.3 in HNR (P = 0.91), the prevalence of CAC > 0 was lower in MESA (52.6%) compared with HNR (67.0%) with a prevalence rate ratio of CAC > 0 of 0.78 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.72–0.85] after adjustment for known risk factors. Consequently, among participants with CAC > 0, the participants in MESA tended to have higher levels of CAC than those in HNR (ratio of CAC levels: 1.39; 95% CI: 1.19–1.63), since many HNR participants have small (near zero) CAC values.

Conclusions: The CAC prevalence was lower in the United States (MESA) cohort than in the German (HNR) cohort, which may be explained by more favourable risk factor levels among the MESA participants. The predictors for increased levels of CAC were, however, similar in both cohorts with the exception that male gender, blood pressure, and body mass index were more strongly associated in the HNR cohort.

Key Words: Epidemiology • Atherosclerosis • Coronary artery calcium • Risk factors • Screening


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




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.