Adult height and prevalence of coronary artery calcium: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Adult height has been hypothesized to be inversely associated with coronary heart disease; however, studies have produced conflicting results. We sought to examine the relationship between adult height and the prevalence of coronary artery calcium (CAC), a direct measure of subclinical atherosclerosis and surrogate marker of coronary heart disease.

Methods and results

We evaluated the relationship between adult height and CAC in 2703 participants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study who underwent cardiac computed tomography. We used generalized estimating equations to calculate the prevalence odds ratios for the presence of CAC (CAC>0) across sex-specific quartiles of height. The mean age of the sample was 54.8 years, and 60.2% of

SUBMITTER: Miedema MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3970195 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature