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(Stroke. 2000;31:3015.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Original Contributions

Serum Ferritin and C282Y Mutation of the Hemochromatosis Gene as Predictors of Asymptomatic Carotid Atherosclerosis in a Community Population

Enrico Rossi, PhD; Brendan M. McQuillan, FRACP; Joseph Hung, FRACP; Peter L. Thompson, MD, FRACP; Conchita Kuek, BSc John P. Beilby, PhD, FAACB

From the Department of Clinical Biochemistry, PathCentre, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre (E.R., C.K., J.P.B.); Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Campus of the Heart Research Institute of Western Australia (B.M.M., P.L.T.); and the Department of Medicine, University of Western Australia (J.H.), Nedlands, Western Australia.

Correspondence to Dr E. Rossi, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, PathCentre, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009. E-mail ric.rossi{at}health.wa.gov.au

Background and Purpose—Serum ferritin and heterozygosity for the C282Y mutation of the hemochromatosis gene have both been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. The purpose of the study was to test whether either is a risk predictor for asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis.

Methods—We assessed carotid intima-media wall thickness (IMT) and focal plaque formation by high-resolution B-mode ultrasound, conventional risk factors, serum ferritin levels, and the C282Y mutation of the hemochromatosis gene in a randomly selected community population of 1098 subjects (545 women and 553 men) aged 27 to 77 years.

Results—After adjustment for conventional risk factors, serum ferritin was not associated with carotid mean IMT. Women with ferritin values over the first quartile (>34 µg/L) had an adjusted odds ratio of 2.1 (95% CI, 1.3 to 3.4; P=0.0016) for carotid plaque compared with the first quartile. Ferritin was not associated with carotid plaque in men. Subjects who were heterozygous for the C282Y mutation constituted 11.4% of the population, and there was no independent association of this genotype with either carotid IMT or focal plaque formation.

Conclusions—We conclude that in our community population, C282Y genotype status was not a risk predictor for either carotid mean IMT or plaque formation. Serum ferritin values in women were independently associated with carotid plaque.

Key Words: atherosclerosis • ferritin • genetics • hemochromatosis • ultrasonics

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