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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2002;22:832.)
© 2002 American Heart Association, Inc.

Atherosclerosis and Lipoproteins

Population-Based Twin Study of the Effects of Migration From Finland to Sweden on Endothelial Function and Intima-Media Thickness

L. Jartti; T. Rönnemaa; J. Kaprio; M.J. Järvisalo; J.O. Toikka; J. Marniemi; N. Hammar; L. Alfredsson; M. Saraste; J. Hartiala; M. Koskenvuo; O.T. Raitakari

From the Department of Medicine (L.J., T.R.), Department of Public Health and General Practice (J.K.), University of Oulu, and Department of Public Health (J.K.), University of Helsinki, Finland; Department of Clinical Physiology (M.J.J., J.O.T., M.S., J.H., O.T.R.), Turku University Central Hospital, and Research and Development Centre (J.M.), Social Insurance Institution, Turku, Finland; Division of Epidemiology (N.H., L.A.), Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Sweden; and Department of Public Health (M.K.), University of Turku, PET-Centre (O.T.R.), University of Turku, Turku, Finland.

Correspondence to Olli Raitakari, MD, PhD, Turku PET-Centre, P.O. Box 52, FIN-20521, Turku, Finland. E-mail olli.raitakari@ utu.fi

Finnish men have higher coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality than Swedish men do. To assess the impact of migration to a country with lower CHD mortality on subclinical atherosclerosis, we measured early functional and structural atherosclerotic vascular changes in twins discordant for migration from Finland to Sweden. Conventional CHD risk factors, flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery, carotid intima-media thickness, and carotid artery compliance were measured in 74 male twin pairs (20 monozygous, 54 dizygous), aged 42 to 69 years, in which co-one twin had migrated more than 20 years ago permanently to Sweden. There were no significant differences in CHD risk factors except for diastolic blood pressure and body fat percentage, which were higher in Sweden. In all subjects, mean FMD was non-significantly higher in Sweden (5.7±4.3% vs 4.9±4.2%, P=0.22), but in monozygous twins the difference in FMD was highly significant (7.2±4.4 vs 3.7±2.9%, P=0.003). There was no significant difference in intima-media thickness or carotid artery compliance between Sweden and Finland. We conclude that in Finnish monozygous twins the endothelial function is better among the twins that have migrated to a country with lower CHD prevalence.

Key Words: higher coronary heart disease • flow-mediated dilatation • carotid intima-media thickness

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