Duration of cigarette smoking is the strongest predictor of severe extracranial carotid artery atherosclerosis.
- 1 May 1990
- journal article
- abstracts
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Stroke
- Vol. 21 (5), 707-714
- https://doi.org/10.1161/01.str.21.5.707
Abstract
The effect of cigarette smoking on extracranial carotid atherosclerosis was studies by obtaining cigarette smoking histories and information on other potential risk factors from consecutive patients undergoing carotid arteriography. At least on extracranial carotid artery was visualized in 752 patients in whom the extent of carotid atherosclerosis was assessed. The total years of cigarette smoking was the most significant independent predictor of the presence of severe carotid atherosclerosis. Other independent predictors, in order of significance, were age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, male sex, and current systolic blood pressure. By age 60 years, the risk of having severe carotid atherosclerosis for a person who had smoked for 40 years was approximately 3.5 times that for a never smoker. The major benefit of smoking cessation is in limiting the accumulation of smoking years.Keywords
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Meta-analysis of relation between cigarette smoking and stroke.BMJ, 1989
- Cigarette Smoking and Risk of Stroke in Middle-Aged WomenNew England Journal of Medicine, 1988
- Analysis of Risk Factors for Stroke in a Cohort of Men Born in 1913New England Journal of Medicine, 1987
- Italian multicenter study of reversible cerebral ischemic attacks Part 5. Risk factors and cerebral atherosclerosisAtherosclerosis, 1987
- Risk of Stroke in Male Cigarette SmokersNew England Journal of Medicine, 1986
- Importance of total life consumption of cigarettes as a risk factor for coronary artery diseaseThe American Journal of Cardiology, 1985
- The role of plasma lipids in carotid bifurcation atherosclerosisAnnals of Neurology, 1985
- Smoking and coronary artery disease assessed by routine coronary arteriography.BMJ, 1985
- Relationship of raised atherosclerotic lesions to fatty streaks in cigarette smokersAtherosclerosis, 1981
- Cigarette smoking and atherosclerosis in autopsied menAtherosclerosis, 1976