@article {1323, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE consortium identifies common variants associated with carotid intima media thickness and plaque.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {43}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 11}, pages = {940-7}, abstract = {

Carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) and plaque determined by ultrasonography are established measures of subclinical atherosclerosis that each predicts future cardiovascular disease events. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data in 31,211 participants of European ancestry from nine large studies in the setting of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. We then sought additional evidence to support our findings among 11,273 individuals using data from seven additional studies. In the combined meta-analysis, we identified three genomic regions associated with common carotid intima media thickness and two different regions associated with the presence of carotid plaque (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). The associated SNPs mapped in or near genes related to cellular signaling, lipid metabolism and blood pressure homeostasis, and two of the regions were associated with coronary artery disease (P < 0.006) in the Coronary Artery Disease Genome-Wide Replication and Meta-Analysis (CARDIoGRAM) consortium. Our findings may provide new insight into pathways leading to subclinical atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular events.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aging, Atherosclerosis, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Cohort Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart, Humans, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Plaque, Atherosclerotic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.920}, author = {Bis, Joshua C and Kavousi, Maryam and Franceschini, Nora and Isaacs, Aaron and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Schminke, Ulf and Post, Wendy S and Smith, Albert V and Cupples, L Adrienne and Markus, Hugh S and Schmidt, Reinhold and Huffman, Jennifer E and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Baumert, Jens and M{\"u}nzel, Thomas and Heckbert, Susan R and Dehghan, Abbas and North, Kari and Oostra, Ben and Bevan, Steve and Stoegerer, Eva-Maria and Hayward, Caroline and Raitakari, Olli and Meisinger, Christa and Schillert, Arne and Sanna, Serena and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Thorsson, Bolli and Fox, Caroline S and Rice, Kenneth and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Nambi, Vijay and Halperin, Eran and Petrovic, Katja E and Peltonen, Leena and Wichmann, H Erich and Schnabel, Renate B and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Parsa, Afshin and Aspelund, Thor and Demissie, Serkalem and Kathiresan, Sekar and Reilly, Muredach P and Taylor, Kent and Uitterlinden, Andre and Couper, David J and Sitzer, Matthias and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Illig, Thomas and Wild, Philipp S and Orr{\`u}, Marco and L{\"u}demann, Jan and Shuldiner, Alan R and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and White, Charles C and Rotter, Jerome I and Hofman, Albert and Seissler, Jochen and Zeller, Tanja and Usala, Gianluca and Ernst, Florian and Launer, Lenore J and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel H and Ballantyne, Christie and Thiery, Joachim and Ziegler, Andreas and Lakatta, Edward G and Chilukoti, Ravi Kumar and Harris, Tamara B and Wolf, Philip A and Psaty, Bruce M and Polak, Joseph F and Li, Xia and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Uda, Manuela and Boerwinkle, Eric and Klopp, Norman and Schmidt, Helena and Wilson, James F and Viikari, Jorma and Koenig, Wolfgang and Blankenberg, Stefan and Newman, Anne B and Witteman, Jacqueline and Heiss, Gerardo and Duijn, Cornelia van and Scuteri, Angelo and Homuth, Georg and Mitchell, Braxton D and Gudnason, Vilmundur and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {6612, title = {Inflammatory markers and extent and progression of early atherosclerosis: Meta-analysis of individual-participant-data from 20 prospective studies of the PROG-IMT collaboration.}, journal = {Eur J Prev Cardiol}, volume = {23}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jan}, pages = {194-205}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Large-scale epidemiological evidence on the role of inflammation in early atherosclerosis, assessed by carotid ultrasound, is lacking. We aimed to quantify cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of inflammatory markers with common-carotid-artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT) in the general population.

METHODS: Information on high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, leucocyte count and CCA-IMT was available in 20 prospective cohort studies of the PROG-IMT collaboration involving 49,097 participants free of pre-existing cardiovascular disease. Estimates of associations were calculated within each study and then combined using random-effects meta-analyses.

RESULTS: Mean baseline CCA-IMT amounted to 0.74 mm (SD = 0.18) and mean CCA-IMT progression over a mean of 3.9 years to 0.011 mm/year (SD = 0.039). Cross-sectional analyses showed positive linear associations between inflammatory markers and baseline CCA-IMT. After adjustment for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, mean differences in baseline CCA-IMT per one-SD higher inflammatory marker were: 0.0082 mm for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (p < 0.001); 0.0072 mm for fibrinogen (p < 0.001); and 0.0025 mm for leucocyte count (p = 0.033). {\textquoteright}Inflammatory load{\textquoteright}, defined as the number of elevated inflammatory markers (i.e. in upper two quintiles), showed a positive linear association with baseline CCA-IMT (p < 0.001). Longitudinal associations of baseline inflammatory markers and changes therein with CCA-IMT progression were null or at most weak. Participants with the highest {\textquoteright}inflammatory load{\textquoteright} had a greater CCA-IMT progression (p = 0.015).

CONCLUSION: Inflammation was independently associated with CCA-IMT cross-sectionally. The lack of clear associations with CCA-IMT progression may be explained by imprecision in its assessment within a limited time period. Our findings for {\textquoteright}inflammatory load{\textquoteright} suggest important combined effects of the three inflammatory markers on early atherosclerosis.

}, issn = {2047-4881}, doi = {10.1177/2047487314560664}, author = {Willeit, Peter and Thompson, Simon G and Agewall, Stefan and Bergstr{\"o}m, G{\"o}ran and Bickel, Horst and Catapano, Alberico L and Chien, Kuo-Liong and de Groot, Eric and Empana, Jean-Philippe and Etgen, Thorleif and Franco, Oscar H and Iglseder, Bernhard and Johnsen, Stein H and Kavousi, Maryam and Lind, Lars and Liu, Jing and Mathiesen, Ellisiv B and Norata, Giuseppe D and Olsen, Michael H and Papagianni, Aikaterini and Poppert, Holger and Price, Jackie F and Sacco, Ralph L and Yanez, David N and Zhao, Dong and Schminke, Ulf and B{\"u}lb{\"u}l, Alpaslan and Polak, Joseph F and Sitzer, Matthias and Hofman, Albert and Grigore, Liliana and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Su, Ta-Chen and Ducimetiere, Pierre and Xie, Wuxiang and Ronkainen, Kimmo and Kiechl, Stefan and Rundek, Tatjana and Robertson, Christine and Fagerberg, Bj{\"o}rn and Bokemark, Lena and Steinmetz, Helmuth and Ikram, M Arfan and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Lin, Hung-Ju and Plichart, Matthieu and Tuomainen, Tomi-Pekka and Desvarieux, Mo{\"\i}se and McLachlan, Stela and Schmidt, Caroline and Kauhanen, Jussi and Willeit, Johann and Lorenz, Matthias W and Sander, Dirk} } @article {7257, title = {Multiethnic Exome-Wide Association Study of Subclinical Atherosclerosis.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Nov 21}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: -The burden of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic individuals is heritable and associated with elevated risk of developing clinical coronary heart disease (CHD). We sought to identify genetic variants in protein-coding regions associated with subclinical atherosclerosis and the risk of subsequent CHD.

METHODS AND RESULTS: -We studied a total of 25,109 European ancestry and African-American participants with coronary artery calcification (CAC) measured by cardiac computed tomography and 52,869 with common carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) measured by ultrasonography within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. Participants were genotyped for 247,870 DNA sequence variants (231,539 in exons) across the genome. A meta-analysis of exome-wide association studies was performed across cohorts for CAC and CIMT. APOB p.Arg3527Gln was associated with four-fold excess CAC (P = 3{\texttimes}10(-10)). The APOE ε2 allele (p.Arg176Cys) was associated with both 22.3\% reduced CAC (P = 1{\texttimes}10(-12)) and 1.4\% reduced CIMT (P = 4{\texttimes}10(-14)) in carriers compared with non-carriers. In secondary analyses conditioning on LDL cholesterol concentration, the ε2 protective association with CAC, although attenuated, remained strongly significant. Additionally, the presence of ε2 was associated with reduced risk for CHD (OR 0.77; P = 1{\texttimes}10(-11)).

CONCLUSIONS: -Exome-wide association meta-analysis demonstrates that protein-coding variants in APOB and APOE associate with subclinical atherosclerosis. APOE ε2 represents the first significant association for multiple subclinical atherosclerosis traits across multiple ethnicities as well as clinical CHD.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001572}, author = {Natarajan, Pradeep and Bis, Joshua C and Bielak, Lawrence F and Cox, Amanda J and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Feitosa, Mary F and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Isaacs, Aaron and Jhun, Min A and Kavousi, Maryam and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Marioni, Riccardo E and Schminke, Ulf and Stitziel, Nathan O and Tada, Hayato and van Setten, Jessica and Smith, Albert V and Vojinovic, Dina and Yanek, Lisa R and Yao, Jie and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Amin, Najaf and Baber, Usman and Borecki, Ingrid B and Carr, J Jeffrey and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cupples, L Adrienne and de Jong, Pim A and de Koning, Harry and de Vos, Bob D and Demirkan, Ayse and Fuster, Valentin and Franco, Oscar H and Goodarzi, Mark O and Harris, Tamara B and Heckbert, Susan R and Heiss, Gerardo and Hoffmann, Udo and Hofman, Albert and I{\v s}gum, Ivana and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kral, Brian G and Launer, Lenore J and Massaro, Joseph and Mehran, Roxana and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mosley, Thomas H and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Newman, Anne B and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Oudkerk, Matthijs and Pankow, James S and Peloso, Gina M and Post, Wendy and Province, Michael A and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Reilly, Dermot F and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rosendaal, Frits and Sartori, Samantha and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Trompet, Stella and Turner, Stephen T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Dhananjay and van der Lugt, Aad and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Wassel, Christina L and Weiss, Stefan and Wojczynski, Mary K and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Deary, Ian J and Dehghan, Abbas and Felix, Stephan B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Mathias, Rasika and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Psaty, Bruce M and Rader, Daniel J and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kathiresan, Sekar and Peyser, Patricia A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {7913, title = {GWAS and colocalization analyses implicate carotid intima-media thickness and carotid plaque loci in cardiovascular outcomes.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 12 03}, pages = {5141}, abstract = {

Carotid artery intima media thickness (cIMT) and carotid plaque are measures of subclinical atherosclerosis associated with ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease (CHD). Here, we undertake meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in 71,128 individuals for cIMT, and 48,434 individuals for carotid plaque traits. We identify eight novel susceptibility loci for cIMT, one independent association at the previously-identified PINX1 locus, and one novel locus for carotid plaque. Colocalization analysis with nearby vascular expression quantitative loci (cis-eQTLs) derived from arterial wall and metabolic tissues obtained from patients with CHD identifies candidate genes at two potentially additional loci, ADAMTS9 and LOXL4. LD score regression reveals significant genetic correlations between cIMT and plaque traits, and both cIMT and plaque with CHD, any stroke subtype and ischemic stroke. Our study provides insights into genes and tissue-specific regulatory mechanisms linking atherosclerosis both to its functional genomic origins and its clinical consequences in humans.

}, keywords = {ADAMTS9 Protein, Amino Acid Oxidoreductases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Coronary Disease, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lod Score, Plaque, Atherosclerotic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Risk Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-07340-5}, author = {Franceschini, Nora and Giambartolomei, Claudia and de Vries, Paul S and Finan, Chris and Bis, Joshua C and Huntley, Rachael P and Lovering, Ruth C and Tajuddin, Salman M and Winkler, Thomas W and Graff, Misa and Kavousi, Maryam and Dale, Caroline and Smith, Albert V and Hofer, Edith and van Leeuwen, Elisabeth M and Nolte, Ilja M and Lu, Lingyi and Scholz, Markus and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Pitk{\"a}nen, Niina and Franz{\'e}n, Oscar and Joshi, Peter K and Noordam, Raymond and Marioni, Riccardo E and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Musani, Solomon K and Schminke, Ulf and Palmas, Walter and Isaacs, Aaron and Correa, Adolfo and Zonderman, Alan B and Hofman, Albert and Teumer, Alexander and Cox, Amanda J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wong, Andrew and Smit, Andries J and Newman, Anne B and Britton, Annie and Ruusalepp, Arno and Sennblad, Bengt and Hedblad, Bo and Pasaniuc, Bogdan and Penninx, Brenda W and Langefeld, Carl D and Wassel, Christina L and Tzourio, Christophe and Fava, Cristiano and Baldassarre, Damiano and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel H and Teupser, Daniel and Kuh, Diana and Tremoli, Elena and Mannarino, Elmo and Grossi, Enzo and Boerwinkle, Eric and Schadt, Eric E and Ingelsson, Erik and Veglia, Fabrizio and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Beutner, Frank and Chauhan, Ganesh and Heiss, Gerardo and Snieder, Harold and Campbell, Harry and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Markus, Hugh S and Deary, Ian J and Jukema, J Wouter and de Graaf, Jacqueline and Price, Jacqueline and Pott, Janne and Hopewell, Jemma C and Liang, Jingjing and Thiery, Joachim and Engmann, Jorgen and Gertow, Karl and Rice, Kenneth and Taylor, Kent D and Dhana, Klodian and Kiemeney, Lambertus A L M and Lind, Lars and Raffield, Laura M and Launer, Lenore J and Holdt, Lesca M and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Dichgans, Martin and Traylor, Matthew and Sitzer, Matthias and Kumari, Meena and Kivimaki, Mika and Nalls, Mike A and Melander, Olle and Raitakari, Olli and Franco, Oscar H and Rueda-Ochoa, Oscar L and Roussos, Panos and Whincup, Peter H and Amouyel, Philippe and Giral, Philippe and Anugu, Pramod and Wong, Quenna and Malik, Rainer and Rauramaa, Rainer and Burkhardt, Ralph and Hardy, Rebecca and Schmidt, Reinhold and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Morris, Richard W and Strawbridge, Rona J and Wannamethee, S Goya and H{\"a}gg, Sara and Shah, Sonia and McLachlan, Stela and Trompet, Stella and Seshadri, Sudha and Kurl, Sudhir and Heckbert, Susan R and Ring, Susan and Harris, Tamara B and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Galesloot, Tessel E and Shah, Tina and de Faire, Ulf and Plagnol, Vincent and Rosamond, Wayne D and Post, Wendy and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Zhang, Xiaoling and Guo, Xiuqing and Saba, Yasaman and Dehghan, Abbas and Seldenrijk, Adrie and Morrison, Alanna C and Hamsten, Anders and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Lawlor, Deborah A and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Bowden, Donald W and Schmidt, Helena and Wilson, James F and Wilson, James G and Rotter, Jerome I and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Deanfield, John and Halcox, Julian and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Loeffler, Markus and Evans, Michele K and Debette, Stephanie and Humphries, Steve E and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hingorani, Aroon D and Bj{\"o}rkegren, Johan L M and Casas, Juan P and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {7683, title = {Multiancestry genome-wide association study of 520,000 subjects identifies 32 loci associated with stroke and stroke subtypes.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr}, pages = {524-537}, abstract = {

Stroke has multiple etiologies, but the underlying genes and pathways are largely unknown. We conducted a multiancestry genome-wide-association meta-analysis in 521,612 individuals (67,162 cases and 454,450 controls) and discovered 22 new stroke risk loci, bringing the total to 32. We further found shared genetic variation with related vascular traits, including blood pressure, cardiac traits, and venous thromboembolism, at individual loci (n = 18), and~using genetic risk scores and linkage-disequilibrium-score regression. Several loci exhibited distinct association and pleiotropy patterns for etiological stroke subtypes. Eleven new susceptibility loci indicate mechanisms not previously implicated in stroke pathophysiology, with prioritization of risk variants and genes accomplished through bioinformatics analyses using extensive functional datasets. Stroke risk loci were significantly enriched in drug targets for antithrombotic therapy.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0058-3}, author = {Malik, Rainer and Chauhan, Ganesh and Traylor, Matthew and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Okada, Yukinori and Mishra, Aniket and Rutten-Jacobs, Loes and Giese, Anne-Katrin and van der Laan, Sander W and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Anderson, Christopher D and Chong, Michael and Adams, Hieab H H and Ago, Tetsuro and Almgren, Peter and Amouyel, Philippe and Ay, Hakan and Bartz, Traci M and Benavente, Oscar R and Bevan, Steve and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Brown, Robert D and Butterworth, Adam S and Carrera, Caty and Carty, Cara L and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Wei-Min and Cole, John W and Correa, Adolfo and Cotlarciuc, Ioana and Cruchaga, Carlos and Danesh, John and de Bakker, Paul I W and DeStefano, Anita L and den Hoed, Marcel and Duan, Qing and Engelter, Stefan T and Falcone, Guido J and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Grewal, Raji P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gustafsson, Stefan and Haessler, Jeffrey and Harris, Tamara B and Hassan, Ahamad and Havulinna, Aki S and Heckbert, Susan R and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Howard, George and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Hyacinth, Hyacinth I and Ikram, M Arfan and Ingelsson, Erik and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jian, Xueqiu and Jimenez-Conde, Jordi and Johnson, Julie A and Jukema, J Wouter and Kanai, Masahiro and Keene, Keith L and Kissela, Brett M and Kleindorfer, Dawn O and Kooperberg, Charles and Kubo, Michiaki and Lange, Leslie A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lee, Jin-Moo and Lemmens, Robin and Leys, Didier and Lewis, Cathryn M and Lin, Wei-Yu and Lindgren, Arne G and Lorentzen, Erik and Magnusson, Patrik K and Maguire, Jane and Manichaikul, Ani and McArdle, Patrick F and Meschia, James F and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mosley, Thomas H and Nalls, Michael A and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Martin J and Psaty, Bruce M and Pulit, Sara L and Rannikmae, Kristiina and Reiner, Alexander P and Rexrode, Kathryn M and Rice, Kenneth and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rost, Natalia S and Rothwell, Peter M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rundek, Tatjana and Sacco, Ralph L and Sakaue, Saori and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Salomaa, Veikko and Sapkota, Bishwa R and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schminke, Ulf and Sharma, Pankaj and Slowik, Agnieszka and Sudlow, Cathie L M and Tanislav, Christian and Tatlisumak, Turgut and Taylor, Kent D and Thijs, Vincent N S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tiedt, Steffen and Trompet, Stella and Tzourio, Christophe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Walters, Matthew and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Wilson, James G and Wiggins, Kerri L and Yang, Qiong and Yusuf, Salim and Bis, Joshua C and Pastinen, Tomi and Ruusalepp, Arno and Schadt, Eric E and Koplev, Simon and Bj{\"o}rkegren, Johan L M and Codoni, Veronica and Civelek, Mete and Smith, Nicholas L and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David A and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Roselli, Carolina and Lubitz, Steven A and Ellinor, Patrick T and Tai, E Shyong and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kato, Norihiro and He, Jiang and van der Harst, Pim and Elliott, Paul and Chambers, John C and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Johnson, Andrew D and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Melander, Olle and Jern, Christina and Strbian, Daniel and Fernandez-Cadenas, Israel and Longstreth, W T and Rolfs, Arndt and Hata, Jun and Woo, Daniel and Rosand, Jonathan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Hopewell, Jemma C and Saleheen, Danish and Stefansson, Kari and Worrall, Bradford B and Kittner, Steven J and Seshadri, Sudha and Fornage, Myriam and Markus, Hugh S and Howson, Joanna M M and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Debette, Stephanie and Dichgans, Martin and Malik, Rainer and Chauhan, Ganesh and Traylor, Matthew and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Okada, Yukinori and Mishra, Aniket and Rutten-Jacobs, Loes and Giese, Anne-Katrin and van der Laan, Sander W and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Anderson, Christopher D and Chong, Michael and Adams, Hieab H H and Ago, Tetsuro and Almgren, Peter and Amouyel, Philippe and Ay, Hakan and Bartz, Traci M and Benavente, Oscar R and Bevan, Steve and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Brown, Robert D and Butterworth, Adam S and Carrera, Caty and Carty, Cara L and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Wei-Min and Cole, John W and Correa, Adolfo and Cotlarciuc, Ioana and Cruchaga, Carlos and Danesh, John and de Bakker, Paul I W and DeStefano, Anita L and Hoed, Marcel den and Duan, Qing and Engelter, Stefan T and Falcone, Guido J and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Grewal, Raji P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gustafsson, Stefan and Haessler, Jeffrey and Harris, Tamara B and Hassan, Ahamad and Havulinna, Aki S and Heckbert, Susan R and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Howard, George and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Hyacinth, Hyacinth I and Ikram, M Arfan and Ingelsson, Erik and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jian, Xueqiu and Jimenez-Conde, Jordi and Johnson, Julie A and Jukema, J Wouter and Kanai, Masahiro and Keene, Keith L and Kissela, Brett M and Kleindorfer, Dawn O and Kooperberg, Charles and Kubo, Michiaki and Lange, Leslie A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lee, Jin-Moo and Lemmens, Robin and Leys, Didier and Lewis, Cathryn M and Lin, Wei-Yu and Lindgren, Arne G and Lorentzen, Erik and Magnusson, Patrik K and Maguire, Jane and Manichaikul, Ani and McArdle, Patrick F and Meschia, James F and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mosley, Thomas H and Nalls, Michael A and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Martin J and Psaty, Bruce M and Pulit, Sara L and Rannikmae, Kristiina and Reiner, Alexander P and Rexrode, Kathryn M and Rice, Kenneth and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rost, Natalia S and Rothwell, Peter M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rundek, Tatjana and Sacco, Ralph L and Sakaue, Saori and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Salomaa, Veikko and Sapkota, Bishwa R and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schminke, Ulf and Sharma, Pankaj and Slowik, Agnieszka and Sudlow, Cathie L M and Tanislav, Christian and Tatlisumak, Turgut and Taylor, Kent D and Thijs, Vincent N S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tiedt, Steffen and Trompet, Stella and Tzourio, Christophe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Walters, Matthew and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Wilson, James G and Wiggins, Kerri L and Yang, Qiong and Yusuf, Salim and Amin, Najaf and Aparicio, Hugo S and Arnett, Donna K and Attia, John and Beiser, Alexa S and Berr, Claudine and Buring, Julie E and Bustamante, Mariana and Caso, Valeria and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Choi, Seung Hoan and Chowhan, Ayesha and Cullell, Natalia and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Delavaran, Hossein and Delgado, Pilar and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Ford, Ian and Gurpreet, Wander S and Hamsten, Anders and Heitsch, Laura and Hozawa, Atsushi and Ibanez, Laura and Ilinca, Andreea and Ingelsson, Martin and Iwasaki, Motoki and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jood, Katarina and Jousilahti, Pekka and Kaffashian, Sara and Kalra, Lalit and Kamouchi, Masahiro and Kitazono, Takanari and Kjartansson, Olafur and Kloss, Manja and Koudstaal, Peter J and Krupinski, Jerzy and Labovitz, Daniel L and Laurie, Cathy C and Levi, Christopher R and Li, Linxin and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lioutas, Vasileios and Liu, Yong Mei and Lopez, Oscar L and Makoto, Hirata and Martinez-Majander, Nicolas and Matsuda, Koichi and Minegishi, Naoko and Montaner, Joan and Morris, Andrew P and Mui{\~n}o, Elena and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Norrving, Bo and Ogishima, Soichi and Parati, Eugenio A and Peddareddygari, Leema Reddy and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pera, Joanna and Perola, Markus and Pezzini, Alessandro and Pileggi, Silvana and Rabionet, Raquel and Riba-Llena, Iolanda and Ribas{\'e}s, Marta and Romero, Jose R and Roquer, Jaume and Rudd, Anthony G and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Sarju, Ralhan and Sarnowski, Chloe and Sasaki, Makoto and Satizabal, Claudia L and Satoh, Mamoru and Sattar, Naveed and Sawada, Norie and Sibolt, Gerli and Sigurdsson, {\'A}sgeir and Smith, Albert and Sobue, Kenji and Soriano-T{\'a}rraga, Carolina and Stanne, Tara and Stine, O Colin and Stott, David J and Strauch, Konstantin and Takai, Takako and Tanaka, Hideo and Tanno, Kozo and Teumer, Alexander and Tomppo, Liisa and Torres-Aguila, Nuria P and Touze, Emmanuel and Tsugane, Shoichiro and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Valdimarsson, Einar M and van der Lee, Sven J and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wakai, Kenji and Weir, David and Williams, Stephen R and Wolfe, Charles D A and Wong, Quenna and Xu, Huichun and Yamaji, Taiki and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Melander, Olle and Jern, Christina and Strbian, Daniel and Fernandez-Cadenas, Israel and Longstreth, W T and Rolfs, Arndt and Hata, Jun and Woo, Daniel and Rosand, Jonathan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Hopewell, Jemma C and Saleheen, Danish and Stefansson, Kari and Worrall, Bradford B and Kittner, Steven J and Seshadri, Sudha and Fornage, Myriam and Markus, Hugh S and Howson, Joanna M M and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Debette, Stephanie and Dichgans, Martin} } @article {7846, title = {Predictive value for cardiovascular events of common carotid intima media thickness and its rate of change in individuals at high cardiovascular risk - Results from the PROG-IMT collaboration.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {13}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {e0191172}, abstract = {

AIMS: Carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) predicts cardiovascular (CVD) events, but the predictive value of CIMT change is debated. We assessed the relation between CIMT change and events in individuals at high cardiovascular risk.

METHODS AND RESULTS: From 31 cohorts with two CIMT scans (total n = 89070) on average 3.6 years apart and clinical follow-up, subcohorts were drawn: (A) individuals with at least 3 cardiovascular risk factors without previous CVD events, (B) individuals with carotid plaques without previous CVD events, and (C) individuals with previous CVD events. Cox regression models were fit to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of the combined endpoint (myocardial infarction, stroke or vascular death) per standard deviation (SD) of CIMT change, adjusted for CVD risk factors. These HRs were pooled across studies. In groups A, B and C we observed 3483, 2845 and 1165 endpoint events, respectively. Average common CIMT was 0.79mm (SD 0.16mm), and annual common CIMT change was 0.01mm (SD 0.07mm), both in group A. The pooled HR per SD of annual common CIMT change (0.02 to 0.43mm) was 0.99 (95\% confidence interval: 0.95-1.02) in group A, 0.98 (0.93-1.04) in group B, and 0.95 (0.89-1.04) in group C. The HR per SD of common CIMT (average of the first and the second CIMT scan, 0.09 to 0.75mm) was 1.15 (1.07-1.23) in group A, 1.13 (1.05-1.22) in group B, and 1.12 (1.05-1.20) in group C.

CONCLUSIONS: We confirm that common CIMT is associated with future CVD events in individuals at high risk. CIMT change does not relate to future event risk in high-risk individuals.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Female, Humans, Intersectoral Collaboration, Male, Middle Aged, Prognosis, Risk Factors}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0191172}, author = {Lorenz, Matthias W and Gao, Lu and Ziegelbauer, Kathrin and Norata, Giuseppe Danilo and Empana, Jean Philippe and Schmidtmann, Irene and Lin, Hung-Ju and McLachlan, Stela and Bokemark, Lena and Ronkainen, Kimmo and Amato, Mauro and Schminke, Ulf and Srinivasan, Sathanur R and Lind, Lars and Okazaki, Shuhei and Stehouwer, Coen D A and Willeit, Peter and Polak, Joseph F and Steinmetz, Helmuth and Sander, Dirk and Poppert, Holger and Desvarieux, Mo{\"\i}se and Ikram, M Arfan and Johnsen, Stein Harald and Staub, Daniel and Sirtori, Cesare R and Iglseder, Bernhard and Beloqui, Oscar and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Friera, Alfonso and Rozza, Francesco and Xie, Wuxiang and Parraga, Grace and Grigore, Liliana and Plichart, Matthieu and Blankenberg, Stefan and Su, Ta-Chen and Schmidt, Caroline and Tuomainen, Tomi-Pekka and Veglia, Fabrizio and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Nijpels, Giel and Willeit, Johann and Sacco, Ralph L and Franco, Oscar H and Uthoff, Heiko and Hedblad, Bo and Suarez, Carmen and Izzo, Raffaele and Zhao, Dong and Wannarong, Thapat and Catapano, Alberico and Ducimetiere, Pierre and Espinola-Klein, Christine and Chien, Kuo-Liong and Price, Jackie F and Bergstr{\"o}m, G{\"o}ran and Kauhanen, Jussi and Tremoli, Elena and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Berenson, Gerald and Kitagawa, Kazuo and Dekker, Jacqueline M and Kiechl, Stefan and Sitzer, Matthias and Bickel, Horst and Rundek, Tatjana and Hofman, Albert and Mathiesen, Ellisiv B and Castelnuovo, Samuela and Landecho, Manuel F and Rosvall, Maria and Gabriel, Rafael and de Luca, Nicola and Liu, Jing and Baldassarre, Damiano and Kavousi, Maryam and de Groot, Eric and Bots, Michiel L and Yanez, David N and Thompson, Simon G} } @article {8789, title = {Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of carotid intima-media thickness.}, journal = {Eur J Epidemiol}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jun 06}, abstract = {

Common carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is an index of subclinical atherosclerosis that is associated with ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease (CAD). We undertook a cross-sectional epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of measures of cIMT in 6400 individuals. Mendelian randomization analysis was applied to investigate the potential causal role of DNA methylation in the link between atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk factors and cIMT or clinical cardiovascular disease. The CpG site cg05575921 was associated with cIMT (beta = -0.0264, p value = 3.5 {\texttimes} 10) in the discovery panel and was replicated in replication panel (beta = -0.07, p value = 0.005). This CpG is located at chr5:81649347 in the intron 3 of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor gene (AHRR). Our results indicate that DNA methylation at cg05575921 might be in the pathway between smoking, cIMT and stroke. Moreover, in a region-based analysis, 34 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were identified of which a DMR upstream of ALOX12 showed the strongest association with cIMT (p value = 1.4 {\texttimes} 10). In conclusion, our study suggests that DNA methylation may play a role in the link between cardiovascular risk factors, cIMT and clinical cardiovascular disease.

}, issn = {1573-7284}, doi = {10.1007/s10654-021-00759-z}, author = {Portilla-Fern{\'a}ndez, Eliana and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Wilson, Rory and Maddock, Jane and Hill, W David and Teumer, Alexander and Mishra, Pashupati P and Brody, Jennifer A and Joehanes, Roby and Ligthart, Symen and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Kavousi, Maryam and Roks, Anton J M and Danser, A H Jan and Levy, Daniel and Peters, Annette and Ghasemi, Sahar and Schminke, Ulf and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Grabe, Hans J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Hurme, Mikko A and Bartz, Traci M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Bis, Joshua C and Thiery, Joachim and Koenig, Wolfgang and Ong, Ken K and Bell, Jordana T and Meisinger, Christine and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Starr, John M and Seissler, Jochen and Then, Cornelia and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Ikram, M Arfan and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Deary, Ian J and Wong, Andrew and Waldenberger, Melanie and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Dehghan, Abbas} } @article {8832, title = {Multiethnic Genome-Wide Association Study of Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {14}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Aug}, pages = {e003258}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery calcification (CAC) and carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) are measures of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic individuals and strong risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is an independent cardiovascular disease risk factor that accelerates atherosclerosis.

METHODS: We performed meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies in up to 2500 T2D individuals of European ancestry (EA) and 1590 T2D individuals of African ancestry with or without exclusion of prevalent cardiovascular disease, for CAC measured by cardiac computed tomography, and 3608 individuals of EA and 838 individuals of African ancestry with T2D for cIMT measured by ultrasonography within the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) Consortium.

RESULTS: We replicated 2 loci (rs9369640 and rs9349379 near and rs10757278 near ) for CAC and one locus for cIMT (rs7412 and rs445925 near ) that were previously reported in the general EA populations. We identified one novel CAC locus (rs8000449 near at 13q13.3) at =2.0{\texttimes}10 in EA. No additional loci were identified with the meta-analyses of EA and African ancestry. The expression quantitative trait loci analysis with nearby expressed genes derived from arterial wall and metabolic tissues from the Genotype-Tissue Expression project pinpoints , encoding a matricellular protein involved in bone formation and bone matrix organization, as the potential candidate gene at this locus. In addition, we found significant associations (<3.1{\texttimes}10) for 3 previously reported coronary artery disease loci for these subclinical atherosclerotic phenotypes (rs2891168 near and rs11170820 near for CAC, and rs7412 near for cIMT).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide potential biological mechanisms that could link CAC and cIMT to increased cardiovascular disease risk in individuals with T2D.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.120.003258}, author = {Lu, Yingchang and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Chen, Shyh-Huei and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Feitosa, Mary F and Lu, Lingyi and Kavousi, Maryam and Raffield, Laura M and Smith, Albert V and Wang, Lihua and Weiss, Stefan and Yao, Jie and Zhu, Jiaxi and Gudmundsson, Elias F and Gudmundsdottir, Valborg and Bos, Daniel and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Ikram, M Arfan and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Taylor, Kent D and Budoff, Matthew J and Gislason, Gauti K and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and An, Ping and Franceschini, Nora and Freedman, Barry I and Fu, Yi-Ping and Guo, Xiuqing and Heiss, Gerardo and Kardia, Sharon L R and Wilson, James G and Langefeld, Carl D and Schminke, Ulf and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Lange, Leslie A and Peyser, Patricia A and Gudnason, Vilmundur G and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Bowden, Donald W and Ng, Maggie C Y} }