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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2000;20:2172.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letters to the Editor

Age-Related Increase in Femoral Intima-Media Thickness in Healthy Humans

Hirofumi Tanaka; Frank A. Dinenno

Human Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO

Douglas R. Seals

Human Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, Divisions of Cardiology and Geriatric Medicine, Center on Aging, Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO

To the Editor:

We read with interest the recent article by Kornet et al,¹ who reported that wall shear stress of the common femoral artery did not change, whereas intima-media thickness (IMT) increased significantly with advancing age. Their findings in general are consistent with our contention that age-related increases in IMT of the common femoral artery observed in healthy humans may not be due to diffusive atherosclerosis but rather due to hypertrophy and/or hyperplasia of vascular smooth muscle cells in the medial layer of the arterial wall. Insight into this issue comes from studies in experimental animals. Arterial walls thicken with age, even in animals in which the incidence of atherosclerosis is very low.² In other species that are known to develop atherosclerosis (eg, rabbits), the age-related arterial wall thickening is not associated with an increase in fibroatheromas or fatty streaks unless it is accompanied by experimentally induced hyperlipidemia.^{2 3} In this context, we recently reported that the IMT of the common femoral artery increases with age in a healthy, rigorously screened, nonsmoking population.⁴ Additionally, we reported that the IMT of the common femoral artery is strongly and positively related to chronic levels of efferent sympathetic nervous system activity yet not significantly related to blood pressure and metabolic risk factors.⁴ We concluded that the trophic influence of the sympathetic nervous system (norepinephrine) in stimulating vascular smooth muscle cell hypertrophy might be a major contributor to the increases in IMT of this muscular artery with advancing age. Thus, the data reported by . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Lilian Kornet; Robert S. Reneman

Department of Physiology, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Arnold P. G. Hoeks

Department of Biophysics, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands