Early atherosclerosis in menopause: behavior of intima-media thickness of arterial wall and of metabolic parameters

We analyzed such markers for early atherosclerosis (i.e. arterial blood pressure total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, fibrinogen, antithrombin III) in 821 postmenopausal women between the ages of: 35 and 55 some in physiological menopause others not. With the collaboration of the Department of Internal Medicine "A, Francaviglia" -University of Catania, 198 women (125 normotensive and 73 with arterial hypertension) were examined specifically for common carotide parietal pattern using the echo duplex scanner. We found that all measured parameters, lipidic, coagulative and haemodynamic, increased with age in both, subgroups of women. The mean of IMT was higher in hypertensive postmenopausal women (2.05 +/- 1.20 cm) than in normotensive postmenopausal women (1.82 +/- 1.25 cm) and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.005).