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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Atherosclerosis. 2017 Jun 23;265:305–311. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2017.06.919

Table 3.

Association of plaque prevalence in the descending aorta with brain volume

TCBV
Model 1a Model 2b Model 3c
β (SE) p-value β (SE) p-value β (SE) p-value
Plaque present in the thoracic DAo Overall (n=118) −0.85 (0.25) <0.001 −0.77 (0.25) 0.002 −0.98 (0.39) 0.012
Interaction with sex 0.748 0.875 0.387
 Men (n=60) −0.58 (0.36) 0.105 −0.39 (0.35) 0.27 −0.28 (0.53) 0.601
 Women (n=58) −1.04 (0.35) 0.003 −1.13 (0.35) <0.001 −1.69 (0.58) 0.004
Any plaque present (thoracic, abdominal, or both) in the DAo Overall (n=722) −0.22 (0.13) 0.101 −0.19 (0.13) 0.15 −0.15 (0.18) 0.405
Interaction with sex 0.008 0.029 0.670
 Men (n=332) −0.44 (0.20) 0.026 −0.28 (0.19) 0.15 −0.09 (0.26) 0.304
 Women (n=390) 0.02 (0.18) 0.913 −0.04 (0.17) 0.80 0.11 (0.25) 0.664

β,beta value; DAo, descending aorta; SE, standard error; TCBV, total cerebral brain volume:total cranial volume ratio.

a

Model 1: Age and sex.

b

Model 2: Model 1, plus adjustment for education, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, total cholesterol:high density lipoprotein ratio, triglycerides, antihypertensive use, lipid lowering therapy, prior cardiovascular disease, and homocysteine.

c

Model 3: Model 2, plus adjustment for carotid artery calcium score (CAC) and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT); 26/371 men and 23/447 women had plaque present in the thoracic DAo on cardiovascular MRI (CMR) and measures for CAC and carotid IMT; 165/371 men and 223/447 women had any plaque present in the DAo on CMR and measures for CAC and carotid IMT