Predictive value of waist-to-hip ratio on cardiovascular risk events.

Background: A central distribution of adipose tissue is frequently associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors.

Methods: Clinical usefulness of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) for predicting the risk of cardiovascular events, estimated with models based on data from the Framingham and Prospective Cardiovascular Münster (PROCAM) studies was evaluated.

Subjects: These were 552 men and 160 women, asymptomatic and at risk for CVD, aged 30-74 y, recruited from an ongoing risk factor screening program conducted at worksites.

Preclinical changes of extracoronary arterial structures as indicators of coronary atherosclerosis in men.

Background: Carotid artery structure change was associated with coronary artery stenosis by angiography of subjects who were for the most part symptomatic.

Objective: To determine whether structural changes at multiple extracoronary sites were associated with noninvasively detected coronary calcium for 94 asymptomatic high-risk men.

Methods And Results: B-mode ultrasonography allowed us to detect plaque at three sites (carotid, femoral, and abdominal aorta) and to measure intima-medial thickness both in common carotid and in femoral arteries.