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Erschienen in:
01.02.2013 | original article
Relationship between breast arterial calcifications detected on mammography and brachial artery intima-media thickness
Erschienen in: Wiener klinische Wochenschrift | Ausgabe 3-4/2013
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Purpose
Although breast arterial calcification (BAC) was shown to be related with coronary artery disease (CAD), hypertension (HT), diabetes mellitus (DM) and carotid intima-media thickness (C-IMT), but the association between BAC and brachial intima-media thickness (B-IMT) has not been evaluated yet. Our aim was to investigate whether associations existed between BAC and measure B-IMT and atherosclerosis (AS) by comparing these patients with healthy control subjects.
Methods
A Total of 75 patients were included in the study. Subjects with or without BAC were assigned into one of two groups and those with a BAC were graded. Main brachial artery IMT was measured.
Results
When the effect of age was partialled out statistically, we found a statistically significant difference in mean B-IMT between BAC (+) (0.54 ± 0.09) and BAC (-) (0.45 ± 0.08) groups (p = 0.001) after the groups were adjusted for age.
Conclusions
In conclusion, even though the relationship between B-IMT and BAC was significant, like the relationship between C-IMT and BAC, significant age difference between BAC (+) and BAC (-) groups and no significant relationship between BAC and time after menopause, after adjustment for age, suggest a strong association between BAC and age rather than AS. This can be elucidated by pathological correlation studies in larger series of subjects.