Carotid thickening and parental CHD

A family history of CHD is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events however, the mechanisms underlying this susceptibility have not been fully elucidated, write the authors. They hypothesized that an important mediator of the familial predisposition to CHD is subclinical atherosclerosis, detectable by noninvasive imaging.The researchers studied 1,662 subjects (mean age 57, 51% women) in the Framingham Offspring Study who underwent carotid ultrasonography and had both biological parents in the original (parental) cohort. Parental CHD events were validated prospectively by a physician endpoint committee. The associations of carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) with premature parental CHD (occurring before age 60) and any parental CHD (no age restriction) were examined in age- and multivariable-adjusted analyses. Age-adjusted mean internal carotid IMT was higher in subjects who had at least one parent with premature CHD than in those without a validated parental history of premature CHD (men 1.13 versus 1.04 mm, PWang et al conclude that their findings and those of prior studies strongly support the existence of anatomic and functional vascular abnormalities in offspring of parents with premature CHD, independent of known vascular risk factors. They note that early-onset parental CHD, in particular, identifies offspring with a strong familial predisposition to atherosclerosis. They call for further investigation to clarify the relative contribution of shared genetic background versus shared environmental influences to this familial predisposition.Reference...