Abstract

Atherosclerosis is a chronic, progressive, systematic condition with a long asymptomatic phase. Atherosclerosis develops gradually as a subclinical condition over the life course and eventually becomes clinically apparent as ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, or peripheral arterial disease. Subclinical atherosclerosis, or preclinical atherosclerosis, refers to the early stage of the atherosclerosis process when within the vascular walls “something has started to change”, yet the cardiovascular disease is not clinically evident. Detecting the forthcoming disease at this stage, before the clinical manifestations, has gained interest over the past decade. Coronary artery calcifi cation, carotid intima-media thickness, and ankle- brachial index are three measures of subclinical atherosclerosis burden that can be detected and quantifi ed non-invasively.

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A. Hofman (Albert) , O.H. Franco (Oscar)
The work presented in this thesis was conducted at the Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Most of the studies described in this thesis were performed within the Rotterdam Study, which is supported by Erasmus MC and Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands Organization for Scientifi c Research (NWO), the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), the Dutch Heart Foundation, the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, the European Commission (DG XII), and the municipality of Rotterdam. Support for genotyping was provided by the Netherlands Organization for Scientifi c Research (NWO) (175.010.2005.011, 911.03.012), and the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)/Netherlands Organisation for Scientifi c Research (NWO) project number 050-060-810. The contributions of the inhabitants, general practitioners and pharmacists of the Ommoord district to the Rotterdam Study are gratefully acknowledged. Financial support for the publication of this thesis was kindly provided by the department of Epidemiology, Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Ageing (NCHA), and by the Metagenics.
Erasmus University Rotterdam
hdl.handle.net/1765/50202
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Kavousi, M. (2013, October 8). Subclinical Measures of Atherosclerosis: Genetics and Cardiovascular Risk Prediction. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/50202