Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Mar 9;57(3):252.
doi: 10.3390/medicina57030252.

Overlapping Genetic Background of Coronary Artery and Carotid/Femoral Atherosclerotic Calcification

Anita Hernyes  1 , Marton Piroska  1 , Bence Fejer  1 , Laszlo Szalontai  1 , Helga Szabo  1   2 , Bianka Forgo  3 , Adam L Jermendy  4 , Andrea A Molnar  4 , Pal Maurovich-Horvat  1   4 , Gyorgy Jermendy  5 , Bela Merkely  4 , David L Tarnoki  1   6 , Adam D Tarnoki  1   6
Affiliations

Overlapping Genetic Background of Coronary Artery and Carotid/Femoral Atherosclerotic Calcification

Anita Hernyes et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

Background and objectives: Multivessel atherosclerosis and its genetic background are under-investigated, although atherosclerosis is seldom local and still causes high mortality. Alternative methods to assess coronary calcification (CAC) might incorporate genetic links between different arteries' atherosclerotic involvement, however, co-occurrences of coronary calcification have not been investigated in twins yet.

Materials and methods: We assessed the heritability of radio morphologically distinct atherosclerotic plaque types in coronary (non-enhanced CT, Agatston score), carotid, and femoral arteries (B-mode ultrasound) in 190 twin subjects (60 monozygotic, 35 dizygotic pairs). Four-segment scores were derived in order to assess the dissemination of the distinct plaque types in the carotid and femoral arteries taking bilaterality into account. We calculated the genetic correlation between phenotypically correlating plaque types in these arteries.

Results: CAC and dissemination of calcified plaques in the carotid and femoral arteries (4S_hyper) were moderately heritable (0.67 [95% CI: 0.37-1] and 0.69 [95% CI: 0.38-1], respectively) when adjusted for age and sex. Hypoechoic plaques in the carotid and femoral arteries showed no heritability, while mixed plaques showed intermediate heritability (0.50 [95% CI: 0-0.76]). Age and sex-adjusted phenotypic correlation between CAC and 4segm_hyper was 0.48 [95% CI: 0.30-0.63] and the underlying genetic correlation was 0.86 [95% CI: 0.42-1].

Conclusions: Calcification of atherosclerotic plaques is moderately heritable in all investigated arteries and significant overlapping genetic factors can be attributed to the phenotypical resemblance of coronary and carotid or femoral atherosclerotic calcification. Our findings support the idea of screening extracoronary arteries in asymptomatic individuals. We also propose a hypothesis about primarily carotid-coronary and femoral-coronary atherosclerosis as two distinct genetic predispositions to co-localization.

Keywords: atherosclerosis; coronary artery calcification; genetic correlation; heritability; multivessel; plaque calcification; twin study.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The Venn-diagram showing frequency of overlaps between atherosclerosis localizations in our study participants.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Koulaouzidis G., Jenkins P.J., Mcarthur T. Prevalence and Distribution of Coronary Artery Calcification in Asymptomatic British Population. Can. J. Cardiol. 2013;29:131.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cjca.2012.09.004. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Doherty T.M., Tang W., Detrano R.C. Racial Differences in the Significance of Coronary Calcium in Asymptomatic Black and White Subjects with Coronary Risk Factors. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 1999;34:787–794. doi: 10.1016/S0735-1097(99)00258-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Demer L.L., Tintut Y. Inflammatory, Metabolic, and Genetic Mechanisms of Vascular Calcification. Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol. 2014;34:715–723. doi: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.113.302070. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kavousi M., Desai C.S., Ayers C., Blumenthal R.S., Budoff M.J., Mahabadi A.-A., Ikram M.A., Lugt A.V.D., Hofman A., Erbel R., et al. Prevalence and Prognostic Implications of Coronary Artery Calcification in Low-Risk Women. JAMA. 2016;316:2126. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.17020. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Piepoli M.F., Hoes A.W., Agewall S., Albus C., Brotons C., Catapano A.L., Cooney M.-T., Corrà U., Cosyns B., Deaton C., et al. 2016 European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice. Eur. Heart J. 2016;37:2315–2381. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehw106. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources