Abstract
BackgroundEpidemiologic studies of the association between alcohol consumption and carotid artery structure have reported conflicting results. We investigated the association between alcohol consumption and carotid atherosclerosis by evaluating the effects of alcohol intake on carotid artery enlargement.MethodsThe study population consisted of 4302 community-dwelling Koreans (1577 men and 2725 women) aged 50 years and over. All the subjects had participated in the baseline survey of the Dong-gu Study conducted between 2007 and 2008. Daily alcohol consumption was determined by the number and frequency of alcoholic beverages consumed. We measured common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT), common carotid and bulb IMT (CB-IMT), carotid plaques, and the diameter of the common carotid artery (CCA-diameter) using high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography. We used analysis of covariance and multiple logistic regressions to determine the relationship between alcohol consumption and carotid artery parameters.ResultsCCA-IMT and CB-IMT were negatively correlated with alcohol consumption after controlling for cardiovascular risk factors in men (p for linear trend = 0.009 and = 0.038, respectively). The multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) for carotid plaques was significantly higher in men who consumed >40.0 g/d (OR = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.13-2.91), although a significant positive correlation was observed between alcohol consumption and carotid plaques (p for linear trend = 0.027). Neither carotid IMT nor carotid plaques were correlated with alcohol intake in women. Alcohol intake was positively correlated with CCA-diameter adjusted for carotid IMT and plaques in the multivariate-adjusted model in both sexes (p for linear trend <0.001 for men and 0.020 for women).ConclusionThe results of our study indicate that alcohol consumption is inversely related to carotid IMT and positively related to carotid plaques in men, but not women. However, alcohol intake is positively associated with CCA-diameter in both men and women. Additional large population-based prospective studies are needed to confirm the effects of alcohol consumption on carotid artery structure.
Highlights
Epidemiologic studies of the association between alcohol consumption and carotid artery structure have reported conflicting results
Some studies have found an association between alcohol consumption and carotid intimamedia thickness (IMT) and carotid plaques [9,10,11,12,13], whereas others reported no relationship between alcohol intake and carotid atherosclerosis [14,15,16]
carotid and bulb IMT (CB-IMT) was inversely related to alcohol consumption in the age-adjusted and multivariate-adjusted analysis in men
Summary
Epidemiologic studies of the association between alcohol consumption and carotid artery structure have reported conflicting results. We investigated the association between alcohol consumption and carotid atherosclerosis by evaluating the effects of alcohol intake on carotid artery enlargement. Several studies have investigated the effects of alcohol consumption on carotid artery structure, but the results have been conflicting. Some studies have found an association between alcohol consumption and carotid IMT and carotid plaques [9,10,11,12,13], whereas others reported no relationship between alcohol intake and carotid atherosclerosis [14,15,16]. Few studies have investigated the relationship between alcohol intake and carotid artery enlargement [16,17,18,19] and the effects of alcohol consumption on the structure of the carotid arterial wall remain unclear
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