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Objective: Due to contradictory results of previous studies evaluating the association between ischemic stroke (IS) and thrombophilic polymorphisms, their routine screening in IS patients, particularly those older than 60 years, is not recommended. We evaluated the differences in the distribution of rs6025 and rs1799963 polymorphisms according to IS subtypes and their interaction with smoking., Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 423 hospital-based consecutive survivors of their first-ever IS and 614 population-based controls. Survivors (18-81 years) with IS documented by brain imagining were examined at a median of 16 months after the index event. The stroke subtype was categorized using the Causative Classification of Stroke System. Controls (50-75 years) were free of a history of stroke/TIA, coronary heart disease, and venous thromboembolism., Results: Age- and gender-adjusted prevalence of individuals carrying at least one copy of the rs1799963A minor allele was 5.3% among stroke survivors (by subtypes: 3.1% in large artery atherosclerosis, 2.0% in cardio-aortic embolism, 2.4% in small artery occlusion, and 10.3% in undetermined stroke) vs. 2.4% among controls. In multinomial multivariate adjusted analysis, rs1799963 was exclusively associated with undetermined stroke (OR: 3.67; 95% CI: 1.52-8.85; p = 0.004). There was strong evidence of rs1799963 × smoking synergistic interaction (OR: 5.14; 95% CI: 1.65-16.01; p = 0.005). There was no association of rs6025 with IS in general, or with any subtype., Conclusions: In our consecutive IS survivors, carriage of the rs1799963A allele is associated with undetermined stroke. This effect appears to be confined to smokers., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Increased aortic stiffness may be one of the mechanisms by which obesity increases cardiovascular risk independently of traditional risk factors. While body mass index (BMI) is generally used to define excess adiposity, several studies have suggested that measures of central obesity may be better predictors of cardiovascular risk. However, data comparing the association between several measures of central and general obesity with aortic stiffness in the general population are inconclusive., Methods: In 1031 individuals (age 53 ± 13 years, 45% men) without manifest cardiovascular disease randomly selected from population, we tested the association between parameters of central obesity (waist circumference - WC, waist-to-hip-ratio - WHR, waist-to-height ratio - WHtR) and general obesity (BMI) with carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV)., Results: In univariate analysis, WC and WHtR were more strongly associated with cfPWV than BMI in both genders, while WHR showed a stronger association with cfPWV only in women. WHtR was more closely associated with cfPVW than WHR. This difference between obesity measures remained after multivariate adjustment. When the fully adjusted hierarchical regression was used, among central obesity measures, WHtR had the largest additive value on top of BMI, while there was no additive value of BMI on top of WHtR., Conclusion: Central obesity parameters are more closely associated with aortic stiffness than BMI. Of central adiposity measures, WHtR has the strongest association with aortic stiffness beyond body mass index and cardiovascular risk factors. Our results suggest that WHtR may be the best anthropometric measure of excess adiposity in the general population., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)