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Taken from WWW.pubmed.gov (testosterone studies)
Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2007 Mar 27; [Epub ahead of print]
Role of endogenous androgens on carotid atherosclerosis in non-obese postmenopausal women.
Montalcini T, Gorgone G, Gazzaruso C, Sesti G, Perticone F, Pujia A
Department of Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica "G. Salvatore", University of Catanzaro Magna Graecia,
U.O. Medicina Interna, Viale Europa, Germaneto, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy.
BACKGROUND: Recent randomized trials on hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women raised
many doubts about their role in cardiovascular disease prevention. Therefore the role of other sex
hormones needed to be investigated. In particular androgens seem to have a protective role on
atherosclerosis. The present study was performed to assess the role of endogenous sex hormones on
carotid atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women.
METHODS AND RESULTS: We consecutively enrolled 101 postmenopausal women aged 45-75 (mean age 57.4)
years referred to our University hospital menopausal health-screening clinic. The subjects underwent
a medical history, a physical examination and biochemical analysis. Extracranial carotid arteries were
assessed by ultrasound. Fifty percent of our sample had carotid plaques. On the multivariate logistic
regression analysis age, glycaemia (positively) and testosterone (negatively) (P=0.02) were significantly
correlated to carotid atherosclerosis. In non-obese subjects we found that participants in the third
tertile had a significantly lower prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis (P=0.02) compared to those in
the first tertile of testosterone.
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest a possible protective role of endogenous androgens at
least on carotid atherosclerosis. Of course these preliminary results should be supported by
prospective studies. Also the different role of these hormones on obese and non-obese subjects
needs to be clarified.
PMID: PMID: 17395446 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher
[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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