Associations between carotid atherosclerosis and high factor VIII activity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension

Background and Purpose A subsample of 147 Chinese subjects from a population-based study of cardiovascular diseases (Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factor Two-Township Study) participated in an ancillary study on extracranial carotid color duplex ultrasonography that aimed to assess the relations of coagulation factors to stroke and carotid atherosclerosis. Methods Logistic models were used to study the associations between cardiovascular disease risk factors and stroke/carotid atherosclerosis, controlling for the effects of age and sex. Results Stroke was significantly associated with hypertension and high values of plasma glucose but not with fibrinogen, factor VIIc, or factor VIIIc. Carotid plaques identified in this study were mostly mild and moderate. The presence of these mild and moderate carotid plaques was significantly associated with high values of factor VIII activity, hypercholesterolemia, hyper triglyceridemia, and hypertension. The highest tertile of factor VIIIc (>1.53) was associated with an odds ratio of 3.35 for carotid atherosclerosis when compared with the lowest tertile (<1.20). A multiple logistic regression including all significant risk factors showed that the degree of association between factor VIIIc and atherosclerosis was attenuated to an odds ratio of 2.65 (P=.061). Conclusions In the present study, the roles of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertriglyceridemia have been implicated in the pathogenesis of carotid atherosclerosis, and roles for hypertension and hyperglycemia in stroke were indicated. A positive association between factor VIIIc and carotid atherosclerosis in this Chinese population was found. Whether this association is independent of the effect of other cardiovascular risk factors awaits further study.