White matter hyperintensities on T2-weighted MRI images among DNA-verified older familial hypercholesterolemia patients.

Background: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic disorder, causing an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) if untreated. Silent brain infarctions and white matter hyperintensities (WMHIs) observed on T2-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI) are associated with increased risk for stroke and myocardial infarction. Age is a strong predictor of WMHIs.

Compliance of the aorta in two diseases affecting vascular elasticity, familial hypercholesterolemia and diabetes: a MRI study.

Arterial elasticity changes in familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and diabetes mellitus (DM) with different but overlapping mechanisms. We compared aortic elasticity between 19 FH patients with the same mutation, 18 type 2 DM patients, and 30 controls, all aged 48 to 64. They underwent aortic magnetic resonance imaging, risk-factor assessment, and carotid and femoral ultrasound measurements.

Aorta of young and middle-aged heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia patients shows no functional or morphological impairment assessed by MRI.

In familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) the level of LDL cholesterol is 2-3 times that of the normal population and leads to accelerated atherosclerosis. Improved care for risk factors has decreased cardiovascular mortality of these patients. We studied subclinical atherosclerotic changes with morphologic and functional aortic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in FH patients under the age of 50.

Statin-treated familial hypercholesterolemia patients with coronary heart disease and pronounced atherosclerosis do not have more brain lesions than healthy controls in later middle age.

Background: Clinically silent brain lesions detected with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are associated with increased risk for stroke, while stroke risk is controversial in familial hypercholesterolemia (FH).

Purpose: To determine whether the occurrence and size of clinically silent brain lesions in FH patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) is higher than in neurologically healthy controls without CHD.

Material And Methods: Brain MRI (1.

Familial hypercholesterolemia patients treated with statins at no increased risk for intracranial vascular lesions despite increased cholesterol burden and extracranial atherosclerosis.

Background And Purpose: To correlate known vascular disease risk factors and the signs of extracranial and intracranial changes of vascular origin in young patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH).

Methods: 39 DNA test-verified heterozygous FH North Karelian patients (FH-NK), aged 6 to 48, 28 of them treated with statins, and 25 healthy controls underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and carotid ultrasound.

Results: Common carotid intima-media thickness was significantly greater in the patients (P=0.