Sex Differences in Longitudinal Determinants of Carotid Intima Medial Thickening With Aging in a Community‐Dwelling Population: The Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging

Abstract

Background Common carotid intima medial thickness (IMT) increases with aging. However, the longitudinal association between IMT and other age‐associated hemodynamic alterations in men and in women are not fully explored. Methods and Results We analyzed repeated measures of IMT, blood pressure, and carotid‐femoral pulse wave velocity over a 20‐year period in 1067 men and women of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging; participants were ages 20 to 92 years at entry and free of overt cardiovascular disease. Linear mixed‐effects models were used to calculate the individual rates of change ( Change ) of IMT, pulse pressure, mean arterial pressure, and pulse wave velocity, among other covariates. Multivariate regression analysis was used to examine the association of IMT Change with baseline and rates of change of hemodynamic parameters and cardiovascular risk factors. IMT increased at accelerating rates from 0.02 mm/decade at age 50 years to 0.05 mm/decade at age 80 years greater rates in men than in women. IMT Change was positively associated with baseline low‐density lipoprotein, low‐density lipoprotein Change , and baseline systolic blood pressure and systolic blood pressure Change , but inversely with baseline diastolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure Change . When blood pressure was expressed as pulse pressure and MAP, IMT Change was positively associated with baseline pulse pressure and pulse pressure Change and inversely with baseline mean arterial pressure and mean arterial pressure Change . In sex‐specific analysis, these associations were observed in women, but not in men. Conclusions In summary, our analyses showed that IMT increases at accelerating rates with aging. Age‐associated changes in IMT were modulated by concurrent changes of low‐density lipoprotein in both sexes, and of pulsatile and mean blood pressure in women but not men.

Longitudinal trajectory of vascular age indices and cardiovascular risk factors: a repeated-measures analysis

“…The cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses used in the present study showed a significant positive correlation between IMT and CA in men and women, consistent with previous studies 14 . However, no studies performed cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of functional and structural BVAIs using the same samples.…”

“…All of these are known risk factors for adverse cardiovascular outcomes and eventual cardiac mortality 9 – 13 . Given that the longitudinal within-person trajectories of some BVAIs are associated with each other 14 , a comprehensive study is needed to identify more reliable, precise, and accurate BVAIs. Therefore, since CVD is associated with the trajectories of arterial function and phenotypes, it is important to study the arterial biological aging of individuals 3 , 15 .…”

Implementation of exercise countermeasures during spaceflight and microgravity analogue studies: Developing countermeasure protocols for bedrest in older adults (BROA)

“…Older age is associated with increases to IMT ( Karikkineth et al, 2020 ) and endothelial dysfunction ( Seals et al, 2011 ). Additionally, arteries stiffen due to (amongst others) increased calcification, collagen production, and inflammation, resulting in increases to pulse-wave velocity and pulse pressure within vessels ( Donato et al, 2018 ).…”

Assessments of Perfusion, Blood Flow, and Vascular Structure in Ambulatory Subjects: Guidance for Translational Research Scientists

“…It is noted that the expected standard-of-practice is that reported PWV measurements are actually the average of two consecutive measurements or the median of three consecutive measurements if the difference between the first two exceeds 0.5 m/s [63]. [340,350,318,341,319,352,321,338,342,345,354,343,160,355,346,323,357,348,358,359,333,360,169,329,361,330,339,362,335,336,363,364] Peripheral arterial vasculature 16 [365, 349, 344, 351, 347, 337, 353, 322, 356, 324-327, 334, 328, 331] Carotid artery 2 [320,125] Aspect of vasculature assessed Arterial stiffness 49 [349, 340, 332, 350, 318, 344, 341, 351, 347, 319, 320, 352, 321, 337, 338, 353, 342, 322, 345, 354, 343, 160, 355, 346, 356, 125, 323, 324, 357, 348, 358, 325-327, 359, 333, 334, 360, 328, 169, 329, 361, 330, 339, 362, 335, 336, 363, 331, 364] Blood pressure 1 [349] Technique SphygmoCor device 12 [340,341,320,352,…”