THE ASSOCIATION OF LEUKOCYTE COUNT, FIBRINOGEN AND C-REACTIVE PROTEINWITH VASCULAR RISK-FACTORS AND ISCHEMIC VASCULAR DISEASES

In 154 subjects (age 63+/-11 years; 63 women and 91 men) randomly sele cted from the population, we tested the hypothesis that inflammatory p arameters are associated with vascular risk factors and particularly w ith a history of ischemic vascular diseases. The subjects were part of the control group (n=197) in a case-control study investigating recen t infection as a risk factor for acute cerebrovascular ischemia and ha d been matched for sex and age with patients suffering from acute isch emic stroke or transient ischemic attack. Subjects with malignant or i nflammatory diseases, with recent trauma, surgery or vascular diseases (n=43) were excluded from the present analysis. In multivariate analy sis, current smoking, diabetes mellitus, age greater than or equal to 65 years, and a history of stroke independently increased the leukocyt e count. Hypertriglyceridemia, peripheral arterial disease, and diabet es mellitus were positively associated with C-reactive protein (CRP). Age greater than or equal to 65 years and diabetes mellitus independen tly increased fibrinogen. (p<0.05, respectively) Subjects with a histo ry of cerebrovascular, cardiovascular or peripheral arterial disease h ad higher leukocyte counts, fibrinogen and CRP than subjects without v ascular risk factors and higher leukocytes and fibrinogen than subject s with one or more risk factors. Subjects under the age of 65 with vas cular risk factors but without ischemic diseases had higher leukocyte count, fibrinogen and CRP and subjects older than 65 with risk factors had higher CRP than subjects without risk factors or ischemic disease s in the same age group. (p<0.05, respectively) These results support the hypotheses that low-grade inflammation is associated with vascular risk factors and that inflammatory mechanisms may contribute to the r isk of organ ischemia.