Heart disease risk factors may age arteries

AORN Journal, August, 2004

A cluster of cardiovascular disease risk factors, known as the metabolic syndrome, may make arteries look old, according to an April 21, 2004, news release from the American College of Cardiology. Metabolic syndrome is a group of several cardiovascular risk factors, including impaired glucose tolerance, high blood pressure, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and abdominal obesity.

Researchers analyzed data from 471 participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging who were free of pre-existing coronary artery disease. Data collection included ultrasound scans of the right common carotid artery, as well as measurements of blood pressure, body shape and mass, smoking, cholesterol, and blood sugar.

Researchers found that metabolic syndrome increased both the thickness and stiffness of the carotid artery, which are measures of its structure and function. Participants with metabolic syndrome had carotid arteries that were 16% thicker and 32% stiffer than the arteries of participants without those risk factors, and participants with at Least three risk factors had thicker and stiffer arteries than could be explained by simply summing up the effect of each individual risk factor.

Metabolic syndrome appears to accelerate age-related changes in blood vasculature, so that younger participants with metabolic syndrome have carotid artery thickness and stiffness levels similar to those of older people without metabolic syndrome. For example, a 40-year-old person with metabolic syndrome might have arteries that appear to be those of a 55- or 60-year-old individual

Heart Disease Risk Factors Make Arteries Look "Old" (news release, Bethesda, Md: American College of Cardiology, April 21, 2004) http://www.acc.org/media/ releases/highlights/2004/apr04/arteries.htm (accessed 22 April 2004).