Prevalence of femoral atherosclerosis in asymptomatic men with hyperlipoproteinaemia.

Sixty-two male subjects with primary hyperlipoproteinaemia of type IIA (n = 18), type IIB (n = 18) or type IV (n = 24) underwent femoral arteriography to investigate the degree of atherosclerosis. All except two were free from symptoms of peripheral arterial disease. The presence of atheroma was determined according to a standardized consensus procedure based on visual interpretation. Atherosclerosis were graded by means of a scoring system, whereby an overall atherosclerosis score (OAS) was calculated for each patient, based on four consecutive segments of the femoral artery. Thirteen type IIA (72%), 14 type IIB (78%) and 18 type IV (75%) patients had femoral atherosclerosis, and the mean OAS in the patients with hyperlipoproteinaemia of these types were 0.58, 0.75 and 0.49, respectively, all with a standard error of the mean about 0.05. The atherosclerosis score increased the more distal the arterial segment, being most prevalent in the lower inferior segment. The OAS was higher in patients of above median age, in those with systolic or diastolic blood pressure above the median and in smokers. Multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that low density lipoproteins cholesterol was highly significantly related to OAS among smokers. In conclusion, femoral atherosclerosis is a prevalent finding in asymptomatic subjects with hyperlipoproteinaemia and could serve as a basis for intervention studies.