the videotapes 1 year after the subjects’ examinations, reader blinded to the original result. The intrareader
variabilitycorrelation coefficients
Pearson’s coeffi-
cient for the vessel diameters were: 3.70.88 for the sagittal aortic diameter, 5.80.72 for the transverse
aortic diameter, 8.30.78 for the iliac and 5.20.86 for the femoral arterial diameters. The corresponding
interreader values were: 4.50.86 for the sagittal aortic diameter, 6.50.71 for the transverse aortic diameter,
8.70.76 for the iliac and 6.90.89 for the femoral arterial diameters.
2
.
3
. Statistical analyses The data were analysed with the Systat
TM
statistical program [13], which estimated the dependence of the
diameters on age by means of correlation analysis. The data are presented as means 9 SD values, unless other-
wise stated. The x
2
test was used to test the differences in frequencies, and Student’s two-tailed t-test for inde-
pendent samples to compare two groups. P-values B 0.05 were considered statistically significant. The
arterial diameters were related to the risk factor vari- ables in multivariate stepwise linear regression analysis
by backward elimination. Only the variables significant at P 5 0.15 were retained in the equation.
3. Results
The clinical data are presented in Table 1. Table 2 shows the arterial diameters in the male and female
cohorts. Men had significantly larger diameters of the aorta mean sagittal diameter 20.3 9 2.8 vs. 17.2 9 1.3
mm and the common iliac 13.3 9 2.0 vs. 12.2 9 1.3 and common femoral arteries 11.0 9 1.5 vs. 9.7 9 1.0
than women P for all B 0.001. The transversal aortic diameters were larger than the sagittal ones, the former
being 22.2 9 3.0 mm for men and 18.4 9 1.4 mm for women P B 0.001. The arterial diameters were more
closely related to body height in women than in men. The diameters of the aorta in men and those of the
common iliac and femoral arteries both in men and in women appeared to enlarge with age Tables 2 and 3
Fig. 1.. The aortic diameter was larger in hypertensive men aged 56 – 60 than in control men of the same age
Table 2 Fig. 1. The mean aortic diameter was larger than the mean plus 2 SD 20.0 mm in 2.5 of the
control women aged 40 – 50 and, in 2.9 of those aged 51 – 60 years, and the corresponding percentages for
hypertensive women were 3.0 and 1.5. In the corre- sponding age groups of men, the aortic diameter ex-
ceeded the mean plus 2 SD 25.4 mm in 0.8 40 – 50 years and 3.9 51 – 60 years of the controls and in 0.8
and 7.0 of the corresponding hypertensives. In the common iliac arteries, the percentages for the same age
groups were 1.35.1 mean + 2 SD \ 14.6 mm con- trol women, 4.58.0 hypertensive women, 0.4
5.8 mean + 2 SD \ 17.2 mm control men and 1.612.3 hypertensive men. Hypertensive women
in the age groups of 40 – 45 and 46 – 50 years had significantly larger common iliac and common femoral
arteries than the controls. Obesity was significantly associated with arterial diameter and also with blood
pressure Table 3. The effect of lipid values, however, was nonsignificant. The diameters of the aorta in men
and the diameters of the common iliac arteries in both men and women correlated well with the amount of
plaques, which increased with age Table 3 Fig. 2. Hypertensive subjects had a larger plaque extent than
controls, especially older women with a long duration of hypertension. The mean sum of plaque lengths in the
aorto – iliac area was 79 mm in control and 107 mm in hypertensive women, and 100 mm in control and 104
mm in hypertensive men. Non-smoking men had sig- nificantly wider common iliac and common femoral
arteries and slightly wider aortas than smoking men, and non-smoking women had only slightly wider com-
mon iliac and common femoral arteries than smoking women, but smoking women had wider aortas than
non-smoking women Fig. 3.
Table 1 Clinical data of the hypertensive and control subjects
a
Women Variable
Men Controls
HA P
Controls HA
P 255
233 Number
240 251
N.S. N.S.
51.9 9 5.9 51.8 9 6.0
Age year 50.5 9 5.9
50.9 9 6.1 27.9 9 4.6
B 0.001
26.0 9 4.2 BMI kgm
2
29.1 9 4.2 26.6 9 3.6
B 0.001
140 9 20 154 9 20
B 0.001
SBP mm Hg 147 9 20
159 9 21 B
0.001 83 9 13
91 9 11 B
0.001 DBP mm Hg
89 9 10 97 9 10
B 0.001
4.7 9 9.2 5.0 9 10.6
N.S. Smoking pack- years
16.1 9 14.2 15.3 9 13.6
N.S. 5.8 9 1.0
N.S. 5.7 9 1.1
N.S. Total cholesterol mmoll
5.8 9 1.1 5.5 9 1.0
HDL cholesterol mmoll 1.53 9 0.39
1.45 9 0.38 0.016
1.23 9 0.30 1.19 9 0.32
N.S. Triglycerides mmoll
B 0.001
1.7 9 1.6 1.4 9 1.6
B 0.001
1.1 9 1.6 1.3 9 1.6
a
Values are mean SD. HA, hypertension; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure.
Table 2 Sagittal artery diameters in the hypertensive and control women and men
a
Age 40–45
46–50 51–55
56–60 All
P
b
Aorta Women
17.2 9 1.4 17.0 9 1.4
17.1 9 1.3 17.0 9 1.6
17.1 9 1.4 17.0 9 1.5
Control 17.3 9 1.5
17.3 9 1.3 17.2 9 1.3
HA 17.3 9 1.3
17.6 9 1.3 0.022
20.3 9 2.8 Men
19.9 9 1.7 Control
20.5 9 2.2 19.1 9 2.1
21.7 9 3.1 20.2 9 2.5
19.9 9 1.8 20.6 9 2.7
22.5 9 4.4 19.0 9 2.0
20.4 9 3.1 HA
0.574 Common iliac arteries
12.2 9 1.3 Women
11.5 9 1.0 12.1 9 1.0
12.5 9 1.4 12.0 9 1.3
Control 11.6 9 1.0
12.2 9 1.2
2
12.4 9 1.3
3
12.6 9 1.3 12.2 9 1.2
1
12.4 9 1.4 HA
B 0.001
Men 13.3 9 2.0
12.8 9 1.6 13.2 9 1.9
14.7 9 1.7 12.2 9 1.6
13.2 9 2.0 Control
13.2 9 1.6 13.6 9 1.9
15.5 9 2.1
4
13.6 9 2.2 HA
0.007 12.3 9 1.7
Common femoral arteries Women
9.7 9 1.0 9.2 9 0.9
Control 9.6 9 0.8
9.4 9 1.0 9.9 9 1.0
9.6 9 1.0 9.8 9 0.9
6
9.9 9 0.9
7
9.9 9 0.8 9.9 9 0.9
5
9.9 9 0.9 HA
B 0.001
Men 11.0 9 1.5
11.0 9 1.5 10.6 9 1.2
10.7 9 1.3 11.8 9 1.2
10.5 9 1.3 10.9 9 1.5
Control 10.8 9 1.2
11.1 9 1.2 12.1 9 1.6
HA 11.1 9 1.5
10.4 9 1.3 0.058
a
Values are means 9 SD. Difference between hypertensives and controls t-test.
b
Significant differences between hypertensives and controls in subgroups:
1
P = 0.004;
2
PB0.001;
3
P = 0.035;
4
P = 0.001;
5
P = 0.001;
6
PB0.001;
7
P = 0.029.
4. Discussion
