Vascular Risk Factors in Bulgarian Volunteers in Middle Adulthood.

The present study in Bulgarian volunteers aged 45-55 years focuses on the type and frequency of some vascular risk factors (VRF); it analyzes physical data and results of instrumental investigations (ophthalmoscopy, electrocardiography, Doppler sonography) as well as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The study participants have neither subjective memory complaints nor previous cerebrovascular and cardiovascular incidents. The neurological examination and the mental status is normal and VRF are not considered to aff ect their normal daily living. The arterial hypertension (I degree), dyslipidemia and increased LDL-cholesterol correlate with the pathological findings from Doppler/MRI. The regression model explains 35% of the dispersion in statistics and correctly classifies 76.8% of the observations as independent prognostic factors for the presence of abnormal findings from Doppler/MRI at the age from 45 to 55 years, which corresponds to subclinical cerebrovascular disease.