PREDOMINANCE OF AORTIC CALCIFICATION AS AN ATHEROSCLEROTIC MANIFESTATION IN WOMEN - THE REYKJAVIK STUDY

Since 1967 the Reykjavik study has monitored coronary artery disease a nd its risk factors in randomly selected cohorts. From 1979 to 1984, 3 246 men and 3545 women aged 45-74 years were studied. Routine biplane chest X rays were assessed by a radiologist who noted the presence or absence of aortic calcification (AC), but had no detailed knowledge of the subjects. Overall, AC was diagnosed in 283 (8%) women, but in onl y 54 of the men (1.7%). In the women, the prevalence of AC increased f rom 2.0% at age 45-49 years to 17.1% at the age of 70-74 years, while in men it was 0 and 8.3%, respectively. In women, multivariate analysi s of risk factors showed AC to be positively related to systolic and n egatively related to diastolic blood pressure, indicating a potential relation to pulse pressure. Furthermore, AC was independently associat ed with age, drug treatment for hypertension, nonfasting blood sugar, use of antidiabetic drugs, total serum cholesterol levels, and the amo unt of smoking. Too few men had AC for multivariate assessment of risk factors. In addition, in women AC was also related to a previous myoc ardial infarction (P < 0.05), mortality from coronary artery disease ( p < 0.01), and the presence of intermittent claudication (P < 0.01). I n men, however, AC was related only to total mortality (p < 0.05). Thu s, these data show AC to be more prevalent in women, independently ass ociated with recognized atherosclerotic risk factors, and a potential marker for coronary and peripheral artery disease.