Elevated plasma total cholesterol level is associated with the risk of asymptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis

PLoS One. 2014 Jul 3;9(7):e101232. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0101232. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Background: Intracranial arterial stenosis (ICAS) is one of the most common causes of stroke, and dyslipidemia was one of the most common risk factors related to ICAS. However, the correlation between the plasma total cholesterol level (PTC) and ICAS, especially asymptomatic ICAS (AICAS) is not clear.

Materials and methods: 5,300 participants were enrolled in this study. The diagnosis of AICAS was made by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography. The participants were then divided into 5 essentially equal-sized groups based on their PTC levels. The multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the correlation between the PTC level and the prevalence of AICAS.

Results: 13.0% of the participants were diagnosed with AICAS. The prevalence of AICAS gradually increased with the increasing PTC level. After adjusted by the possible confounding factors, the Odds Ratios (OR) of the AICAS prevalence between the 1st quintile group and the other 4 groups were 1.13, 1.23, 1.63 and 1.75 with 95% confident intervals (CI) of 0.84-1.52, 0.91-1.66, 1.20-2.22 and 1.23-2.47, respectively. The further subgroup analysis revealed that the PTC level was stronger for males (OR 1.42 95%CI 1.23-1.64), regarding the prevalence of AICAS.

Conclusions: In this large community-based study, the prevalence of AICAS is 13.0%, subjects with higher PTC levels showed a mild increase in the prevalence of AICAS. The PTC level is an independent risk factor of AICAS. Males seem to be significantly more vulnerable to the risk of AICAS.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Cholesterol / blood*
  • Cohort Studies
  • Constriction, Pathologic / diagnosis*
  • Constriction, Pathologic / epidemiology
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / complications
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Hypertension / complications
  • Intracranial Arterial Diseases / complications
  • Intracranial Arterial Diseases / diagnosis*
  • Intracranial Arterial Diseases / epidemiology
  • Logistic Models
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Odds Ratio
  • Prevalence
  • Risk Factors
  • Sex Factors
  • Smoking
  • Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial

Substances

  • Cholesterol

Grants and funding

This work is supported by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China (No. 2008BAI52B03), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81202279), Beijing Municipal S&T Commission (D101107049310005, Z121100005512016), National Science and Technology Major Project of China (2011BAI08B02), the Capital Health research and Development of Special (No. Capital 2011-2004-03) and the 12th Five-Year Plan for “New Drugs Innovation and Development” National Science and Technology Major Project: Clinical Resource Biobank Construction (2011ZX09307-001-06). Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (No. D111107003111007). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.