 PCOS shows independent link to coronary artery calcification
Wednesday 11 June 2003
PCOS shows independent link to coronary artery calcification
Source: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2003; 88: 2562-8
Polycystic ovary syndrome may be an independent risk factor for coronary artery calcification, a marker of atherosclerosis.
Researchers have found that coronary artery calcification (CAC) is highly prevalent among women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), an association that is not entirely explained by the predominance of obesity in this population.
Nevertheless, Dr. Lorraine Fitzpatrick and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic and Foundation in Rochester, Minnesota, USA, say that obese women with PCOS are at particularly high risk of atherosclerosis, and should be targeted for primary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD).
The team recruited 36 women with PCOS, and 71 controls with normal menstrual cycles, who were matched for age and body mass index. The majority of these women were obese, so a reference population of 142 nonobese women was also included. CAC and other CHD risk factors were assessed in all of the participants.
CAC was significantly more common among women with PCOS than in the controls or the reference population, at 39 percent, 21 percent and 10 percent, respectively. Women with PCOS also had less favorable lipid profiles than the matched controls, which could explain their greater risk of atherosclerosis despite a similar prevalence of obesity in the two groups, say Fitzpatrick et al.
"Early lifestyle interventions aimed at treating obesity and dyslipidemia in PCOS women may prevent or delay atherosclerosis in this high risk population," they suggest.
Posted: 10 June 2003 | 
