on November 11, 2004
Published online before print November 11, 2004, doi: 10.1161/01.ATV.0000150042.43866.7f
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Submitted on May 31, 2004
Accepted on October 7, 2004
Geographic Origin as a Determinant of Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness and Brachial Artery Flow-Mediated Dilation. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study
Markus Juonala ;
From the Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine (M.J., N.M.-T.) and the Departments of Clinical Physiology (O.T.R.) and Medicine (J.S.A.V., T.R.), University of Turku; the Department of Clinical Physiology (M.K.), University of Tampere; the Department of Pediatrics (L.T.), University of Oulu; the Department of Clinical Physiology (T.L.), University of Kuopio; and the Hospital for Children and Adolescents (H.K.Å.) and Division of Nutrition (V.M., L.R.), University of Helsinki, Finland; and the Department of Pediatrics (E.P.), University of Lund, Sweden.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: olli.raitakari{at}utu.fi.
Objective--People living in eastern Finland have 
40% higher coronary heart disease mortality rates than western Finns. Whether this is because of genetic or environmental factors is unknown. We examined the effect of geographic family origin on subclinical atherosclerosis among young Finns.
Methods and Results--As part of a longitudinal follow-up study, we measured carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) in 2264 and brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD) in 2109 white adults, aged 24 to 39 years. Subjects from eastern Finland had greater IMT and lower FMD compared with western subjects. These differences accentuated when the subjects’ family origin (grandparents’ birthplace) was taken into account and remained significant after adjusting for several environmental factors. Among subjects with all grandparents born in eastern or western Finland, IMTs were (mean±SEM) 0.592±0.003 versus 0.565±0.005 mm (P<0.0001), respectively. The corresponding FMD values were 7.61±0.15% versus 8.75±0.26%; P<0.01. The number of grandparents born in eastern Finland was directly related to IMT (P<0.0001) and inversely to FMD (P<0.05).
Conclusions--Young adults originating from eastern Finland have greater carotid IMT and lower brachial FMD than western Finns. Consistent with a hereditable component predisposing to or protecting from atherosclerosis, these differences accentuated when subjects’ family origin was taken into account.
Key words: atherosclerosis • intima-media thickness • flow-mediated dilatation