STEROID SEX-HORMONES AND PERIPHERAL ARTERIAL-DISEASE IN THE EDINBURGHARTERY STUDY

Although treatment with high dose exogenous sex hormones affects cardi ovascular risk, the role of physiological levels of endogenous sex hor mones in the development of atherosclerotic disease in men and women i s unknown. Forty men and 43 women with peripheral arterial disease and 88 age- and sex-matched controls were selected from participants in t he Edinburgh Artery Study, a random survey of 1592 men and women ages 55-74 years from the general population. Compared with sex-matched con trols, male cases had higher systolic blood pressure (155.5 mmHg vs. 1 38.7 mmHg; p less than or equal to 0.01) and waist hip ratio (0.92 vs. 0.89; p less than or equal to 0.05) and female cases had higher lifet ime smoking (root packyears 2.14 vs. 1.03; p less than or equal to 0.0 5). Mean estrone levels were slightly higher in male cases than contro ls (101.9 pmol/Liter vs. 92.1 pmol/liter; p = 0.09), but this associat ion lost significance after multivariate adjustment for age and body m ass index. Mean levels of total and free testosterone, estradiol, and sex hormone binding globulin were not significantly different in cases compared with controls in either sex (p > 0.1). These results, in acc ordance with previous prospective studies on coronary artery disease, do not support a role for physiological levels of endogenous sex hormo nes in the development of peripheral arterial disease in men or postme nopausal women. (C) 1997 by Elsevier Science Inc.