Cigarette smoking causes more arterial damage in women than in men
Monday, August 29, 2011 - 09:30
in Health & Medicine
The harmful effects of tobacco smoke on atherosclerosis, one of the driving forces of cardiovascular disease, are greater in women than in men. This result emerges from the large European epidemiological study (Carotid Intima Media thickness and IMT-PROgression as predictors of Vascular Events: the IMPROVE study), funded by EU (Vth Framework Program Contract n. QLG1-CT-2002-00896). In the IMPROVE study, authors examined 1694 men and 1893 women from Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, France and Italy, and used ultrasound technology to assess the presence of wall thickening and plaques in the carotids, the arteries that bring blood to the brain.