Abstract
Objectives: Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) is an appropriate intermediate end point to
investigate clinically relevant effects on atherogenesis. The study objective was
to clarify whether long-term hormone replacement therapy (HRT) modifies the progress
of age-related IMT in healthy postmenopausal Japanese women. Methods: One hundred and eighty-eight healthy postmenopausal women aged 42–69 years were recruited
into the retrospective study. IMT was measured by B-mode real-time ultrasound in the
following three groups of patients. One hundred and fifteen women who were prescribed
estrogen plus progestin or estrogen alone were classified into two groups according
to the HRT treated period: short-term (<2 years of treatment, n=52) and long-term (≥2 years, n=63) HRT groups. The third group consisted an age-matched women (n=73), who were never treated with HRT (non-HRT group) as a control. Results: Each group was divided into three subgroups according to age: ≤49 years, 50–59 years
and 60 years or older. IMT in patients of age ≥60 years in the non-HRT group was 0.607±0.064 mm and was significantly higher compared with that in the other two age subgroups
of non-HRT patients (≤49 years: 0.495±0.051 mm; 50–59 years: 0.505±0.068 mm) (P<0.05). In the short-term HRT group, IMT of ≥60-year-old-subjects (0.588±0.074 mm) was also significantly higher compared with that in the other two age subgroups
(≤49 years: 0.480±0.034 mm; 50–59 years: 0.511±0.062 mm). However, in the long-term HRT group, IMT was not significantly different among
the three age subgroups. There was a significant relationship between IMT and age
in non-HRT (r=0.594, P<0.0001) and short-term HRT (r=0.542, P<0.001) groups, but no significant relationship was observed in the long-term HRT
(r=0.195, P=0.1266) group. Conclusions: In long-term HRT, more than 2 years may delay the age-related increase in IMT in
healthy postmenopausal Japanese women.
Abbreviations:
ERT (estrogen replacement therapy), HDL (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol), HRT (hormone replacement therapy), IMT (intima-media thickness), TC (total cholesterol), TG (triglyceride)Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 16,
2004
Received in revised form:
December 11,
2003
Received:
June 23,
2003
Identification
Copyright
© 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
