@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 {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} }