Early Carotid Atherosclerosis and Family History of Vascular Disease

Abstract

IMT has a significant familial component that is independent of conventional risk factors. Associations for stroke and MI differ at specific sites in the carotid arterial tree. Although commonly used aggregate CCA/ICA-IMT measures may be appropriate for candidate gene studies investigating stroke risk, these results suggest that CCA-IMT alone may be a better marker for MI risk.