Prothrombin Fragment 1+2 Is Associated With Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Subjects Free of Clinical Cardiovascular Disease

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, because of the accelerated process of atherosclerosis. Obesity is an established risk factor and has gained immense importance in recent studies as an important risk factor for clinical cardiovascular disease, yet the fundamental component stays unclear. Calf circumference is another form for lean mass and peripheral subcutaneous fat and is inversely associated with occurrence of carotid plaques (CP). Multiplicative and opposite effects of both Calf Circumference (CC) and Waist Circumference (WC) in event of CP suggest that the two measures should be taken into account commonly while assessing vascular risk profile. Aim & Objective: To ascertain if waist to calf circumference ratio (WCR) is a marker of Carotid atherosclerosis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. To asses s the correlation between waist to calf circumference ratio and carotid intima media thickness (CIMT ) in patients with Type 2 diabetes. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study at Hospital affiliated to Kasturba Medical college Mangalore from Sept 2016 to Sept 2018 . Method of study: Patients with type 2 DM as per ADA criteria, age >18years are recruited for the study. Results and discussion: In our study with 150 population 25 patients had carotid atherosclerosis and 20 patients had CIMT>1.1. The waist circumference in patients with CA is in the range of 93.07 and 99.85 & the CC in patients with CA is in the range of 29.49 to 31.25. The WCR in patients with CA is in the range of 3.12 to 3.26. The difference was statistically significant with a p value of <0.05. In our study it was found that WC and WCR correlated well with carotid atherosclerosis, and surprisingly calf circumference also correlated with carotid atherosclerosis but not as significant as both WC and WCR. Conclusion: To conclude, in our population based study of 150 subjects we found that carotid atherosclerosis is significantly more in people with increased waist calf circumference ratio. WCR may be a new, useful and practical anthropometric index that facilitates the early identification of diabetic subjects with high risk for cardiovascular disease. Validation of this finding in individual populations is required. Future studies should test the association of calf circumference with carotid intima media thickness and carotid plaques using better measures than ultrasound such as magnetic resonance imaging. Further research focusing on underlying mechanisms in the role of lean mass and peripheral fat mass is required.

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Plasma expression of microRNA-425-5p and microRNA-451a as biomarkers of cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-95234-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Delia Taverner ◽

Dídac Llop ◽

Roser Rosales ◽

Raimon Ferré ◽

Luis Masana ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rheumatoid Arthritis ◽

Cardiovascular Disease ◽

Pulse Wave Velocity ◽

Wave Velocity ◽

Pulse Wave ◽

Disease Risk ◽

Intima Media Thickness ◽

Carotid Intima Media Thickness ◽

Media Thickness ◽

Epigenetic Biomarkers

AbstractTo validate in a cohort of 214 rheumatoid arthritis patients a panel of 10 plasmatic microRNAs, which we previously identified and that can facilitate earlier diagnosis of cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis patients. We identified 10 plasma miRs that were downregulated in male rheumatoid arthritis patients and in patients with acute myocardial infarction compared to controls suggesting that these microRNAs could be epigenetic biomarkers for cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Six of those microRNAs were validated in independent plasma samples from 214 rheumatoid arthritis patients and levels of expression were associated with surrogate markers of cardiovascular disease (carotid intima-media thickness, plaque formation, pulse wave velocity and distensibility) and with prior cardiovascular disease. Multivariate analyses adjusted for traditional confounders and treatments showed that decreased expression of microRNA-425-5p in men and decreased expression of microRNA-451 in women were significantly associated with increased (β = 0.072; p = 0.017) and decreased carotid intima-media thickness (β = −0.05; p = 0.013), respectively. MicroRNA-425-5p and microRNA-451 also increased the accuracy to discriminate patients with pathological carotid intima-media thickness by 1.8% (p = 0.036) in men and 3.5% (p = 0.027) in women, respectively. In addition, microRNA-425-5p increased the accuracy to discriminate male patients with prior cardiovascular disease by 3% (p = 0.008). Additionally, decreased expression of microRNA-451 was significantly associated with decreased pulse wave velocity (β = −0.72; p = 0.035) in overall rheumatoid arthritis population. Distensibility showed no significant association with expression levels of the microRNAs studied. We provide evidence of a possible role of microRNA-425-5p and microRNA-451 as useful epigenetic biomarkers to assess cardiovascular disease risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

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Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of carotid intima-media thickness

European Journal of Epidemiology ◽

10.1007/s10654-021-00759-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Eliana Portilla-Fernández ◽

Shih-Jen Hwang ◽

Rory Wilson ◽

Jane Maddock ◽

W. David Hill ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Cardiovascular Disease ◽

Dna Methylation ◽

Cardiovascular Risk ◽

Cardiovascular Risk Factors ◽

Association Studies ◽

Subclinical Atherosclerosis ◽

Intima Media Thickness ◽

Carotid Intima Media Thickness ◽

Media Thickness

AbstractCommon carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is an index of subclinical atherosclerosis that is associated with ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease (CAD). We undertook a cross-sectional epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of measures of cIMT in 6400 individuals. Mendelian randomization analysis was applied to investigate the potential causal role of DNA methylation in the link between atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk factors and cIMT or clinical cardiovascular disease. The CpG site cg05575921 was associated with cIMT (beta = −0.0264, p value = 3.5 × 10–8) in the discovery panel and was replicated in replication panel (beta = −0.07, p value = 0.005). This CpG is located at chr5:81649347 in the intron 3 of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor gene (AHRR). Our results indicate that DNA methylation at cg05575921 might be in the pathway between smoking, cIMT and stroke. Moreover, in a region-based analysis, 34 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were identified of which a DMR upstream of ALOX12 showed the strongest association with cIMT (p value = 1.4 × 10–13). In conclusion, our study suggests that DNA methylation may play a role in the link between cardiovascular risk factors, cIMT and clinical cardiovascular disease.

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