Table 1.
Baseline general characteristics, cardiovascular risk factors and inflammatory markers of InCHIANTI Study participants according to the presence vs absence of carotid artery plaques at baseline (left side) and of new carotid artery plaques at three-year follow-up (right side).
| Carotid artery plaques at baseline (n. 1168) (*) |
New carotid artery plaques at follow-up (n. 486) (†) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presence | Absence | Presence | Absence | |||
| n. 538 (46.1%) | n. 630 | p (‡) | n. 195 (40.1%) | n. 291 | p (‡) | |
| General characteristics | ||||||
| Age (years) (mean ± SD) | 75.5 ± 8.3 | 61.7 ± 17.2 | < 0.001 | 71.2 ± 7.2 | 56.6 ± 16.9 | < 0.001 |
| Sex (% females) | 49.6 | 60.0 | < 0.001 | 59.5 | 58.4 | 0.576 |
| Chronic respiratory, urinary tract and dental Infections (%) | 49.7 | 33.4 | 0.316 | 43.7 | 24.7 | 0.260 |
| Use of statins and/or antiinflammatory drugs (%) | 13.0 | 8.9 | 0.451 | 11.8 | 7.2 | 0.987 |
| Cardiovascular risk factors | ||||||
| Family medical history of atherosclerosis (%) | 51.0 | 43.5 | 0.011 | 55.9 | 37.1 | 0.024 |
| Physical activity level previous year (score 0-4, 4 best) (mean ± SD) | 1.29 ± 0.89 | 1.51 ± 0.87 | 0.612 | 1.35 ± 0.74 | 1.71 ± 0.86 | 0.337 |
| BMI (kg/m2) (mean ± SD) | 27.5 ± 3.7 | 27.1 ± 4.4 | 0.628 | 27.9 ± 4.2 | 26.7 ± 4.4 | 0.891 |
| Pack-years Index (mean ± SD) | 15.1 ± 22.1 | 7.6 ± 14.4 | < 0.001 | 10.5 ± 17.2 | 5.5 ± 9.9 | 0.001 |
| Total Cholesterol (mg/dL) (mean ± SD) | 219.2 ± 39.4 | 212.6 ± 40.1 | 0.173 | 221.1 ± 36.3 | 210.1 ± 41.6 | 0.637 |
| LDL-Cholesterol (mg/dL) (mean ± SD) | 138.5 ± 33.7 | 132.0 ± 35.7 | 0.138 | 141.1 ± 32.2 | 129.8 ± 37.4 | 0.818 |
| HDL-Cholesterol (mg/dL) (mean ± SD) | 54.5 ± 15.1 | 56.0 ± 14.4 | 0.687 | 54.2 ± 12.5 | 56.9 ± 14.8 | 0.269 |
| Triglycerides (mg/dL) (mean ± SD) | 130.6 ± 72.4 | 123.3 ± 82.6 | 0.795 | 128.5 ± 65.9 | 117.2 ± 69.4 | 0.416 |
| Diabetes (%) | 13.5 | 6.3 | 0.021 | 9.7 | 2.6 | 0.104 |
| Hypertension (%) | 77.1 | 49.2 | < 0.001 | 62.2 | 36.0 | 0.780 |
| Metabolic Syndrome (%) | 25.6 | 18.5 | 0.135 | 20.8 | 16.4 | 0.280 |
| Coronary artery disease (%) | 9.5 | 3.2 | 0.080 | 6.6 | 0.3 | 0.037 |
| Perpheral artery disease (%) | 16.3 | 4.0 | 0.001 | 5.2 | 1.0 | 0.094 |
| Inflammatory markers | ||||||
| C-reactive protein high sensitivity (μg/mL) (mean ± SD) (§) | 5.89 ± 10.81 | 3.76 ± 6.56 | 0.006 | 4.45 ± 5.30 | 2.57 ± 3.56 | 0.005 |
| Interleukin 1-β (pg/mL) (mean ± SD) (§) | 0.28 ± 1.34 | 0.32 ± 1.80 | 0.342 | 0.29 ± 1.77 | 0.29 ± 1.48 | 0.286 |
| Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (pg/mL) (mean ± SD) (§) | 162.9 ± 124.0 | 152.6 ± 125.0 | 0.798 | 154.4 ± 94.8 | 143.0 ± 106.6 | 0.192 |
| Interleukin 6 (pg/mL) (mean ± SD) (§) | 2.32 ± 4.41 | 1.52 ± 1.80 | 0.516 | 1.70 ± 1.51 | 1.21 ± 1.77 | 0.172 |
| Interleukin 6 soluble receptor (ng/mL) (mean ± SD) (§) | 105.0 ± 55.6 | 99.3 ± 58.6 | 0.148 | 102.7 ± 59.7 | 99.5 ± 61.7 | 0.341 |
| Tumor necrosis factor α (pg/mL) (mean ± SD) (§) | 3.85 ± 6.00 | 3.02 ± 3.92 | 0.891 | 3.22 ± 4.14 | 2.69 ± 3.55 | 0.672 |
(*)
Participants with complete data at baseline.
(†)
Participants free from carotid artery plaques at baseline who received a carotid artery scan at three-year follow-up.
(‡)
From age- and sex-adjusted linear or logistic regressions, as appropriate.
(§)
Variables log-transformed before being entered into regressions due to marked skewness.