doi:10.1155/2012/257501 Clinical Study Evaluation of Clinical Variables Associated with Increased Carotid Intima-Media Thickness inMiddle-Aged

Copyright © 2012 Michelle Trindade et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. It has been previously documented that carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is a predictor of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to identify clinical parameters associated with an increased cIMT treated hypertensive women. Female patients (n = 116) with essential hypertension, aged 40–65 years, were included in this study. Vascular ultrasoundwas performed and the patients were divided into two groups according to the values of cIMT (< or ≥0.9mm). Patients with greater cIMT presented significantly higher systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure. SerumHDL-cholesterol was significantly lower and CRP was significantly higher in the same group. There was a significant correlation between cIMT and age (r = 0.25, P = 0.007), systolic blood pressure (r = 0.19, P = 0.009), pulse pressure (r = 0.30, P = 0.001), and LDL-cholesterol (r = 0.19, P = 0.043). cIMT was correlated to CRP (r = 0.31, P = 0.007) and negatively correlated to HDL-cholesterol (r = 0.33, P = 0.001). In logistic regression, only HDL-cholesterol, CRP, and pulse pressure were shown to be independent variables associated to increased cIMT. In conclusion, pulse pressure, HDL-cholesterol, and CRP are variables correlated with cIMT in treated hypertensive women. 1