CardioExchange Archive

July 21st, 2011

Carotid IMT Provides Modest Improvement to Risk Prediction

Larry Husten, PHD

Measurement of the maximum intima–media thickness (IMT) of the internal carotid artery (CA) can modestly improve cardiovascular risk prediction, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Joseph Polak and colleagues measured the mean IMT of the common CA and the maximum IMT of the internal CA of 2965 subjects […]

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March 4th, 2011

Legislating CVD Screening Tests in Texas

Amit Khera, MD, MSc

Imaging tests for cardiovascular risk assessment hold great promise.  Both coronary artery calcium (CAC) scanning and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) testing have been shown in multiple prospective studies to predict cardiovascular outcomes and, more recently, to improve risk reclassification based upon the Framingham Risk Score.  Coupled with frustrations about the performance of the Framingham Risk […]

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January 12th, 2011

Researchers Shed New Light on HDL Cholesterol

Larry Husten, PHD

Two papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine shed new light on the important but often mysterious role of HDL cholesterol in cardiovascular disease. In the first paper, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied 1,000 healthy volunteers and patients with coronary artery disease and observed a strong inverse relationship between cholesterol efflux from […]

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August 16th, 2010

Antagonistic People and Carotid Narrowing

Larry Husten, PHD

Researchers from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging studied 5,614 people in four Italian villages and found that those who scored high on a test of antagonism — particularly those who were manipulative and aggressive — were more likely than their more agreeable counterparts to have carotid thickening, as measured by carotid-artery intima media thickness, […]

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