Coronary and aortic calcification among women 8 years after menopause and their premenopausal risk factors - The healthy women study

In the Healthy Women Study, the relationship between cardiovascular risk fa ctors measured premenopausally at age 48, use of hormone therapy, and coron ary and aortic calcification at age 58 were evaluated among 169 women. Appr oximately 63% of women had no coronary calcification, but only 29% had no a ortic calcification. Coronary calcification and aortic calcification were p ositively correlated with each other. There was a very strong association b etween low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) level and coronary calci fication. Among women with premenopausal levels of LDL-C <100 mg/dL, only 9 % had a coronary calcium score greater than or equal to 101 compared with 3 0% of women with an LDL-C >160 mg/dL. Only 5% of women with a high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level >60 mg/dL had high coronary scores. T he level of HDL2-C was especially strongly inversely related to coronary ca lcium scores. Cigarette smoking was a very important determinant of both hi gh aortic and high coronary calcium scores, Other risk factors associated w ith greater coronary calcium were higher systolic blood pressure, triglycer ides levels, and blood glucose. Use of hormone replacement therapy was asso ciated with less coronary calcium (NS). For both hormone replacement therap y users and nonusers, the levels of LDL-C and HDL-C measured premenopausall y were predictors of coronary and aortic calcium scores, Thus, risk factors evaluated premenopausally are powerful predictors of coronary and aortic c alcification, a marker of atherosclerosis, measured 8 years after menopause , 11 years later in these women.