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Objective: Portugal has one of the highest incidences of cerebrovascular disease in Europe. We speculated that this could be due to an early setting of the main cardiovascular risk factors in the Portuguese population., Methods and Results: The levels of the main cardiovascular risk factors were assessed in 1001 candidates to a private Health Education Institution (mean age: 19.3+/-3.3 years). Overall, men had a higher body mass index (23.0+/-3.0 vs. 21.5+/-3.0 kg/m2, p<0.001), higher blood pressure levels (124+/-12 and 73+/-7 vs. 116+/-12 and 70+/-7 mm Hg for systolic and diastolic pressure, respectively, p<0.001) and higher triglyceride levels (70+/-41 vs. 59+/-31 mg/dl, p<0.001) than women. Prevalence of obesity, hypertension, smoking and drinking were also higher in men (6%, 15%, 24% and 40% vs. 4%, 4%, 17% and 13% in women, respectively, p<0.01). Conversely, women had higher levels of total cholesterol (174+/-31 vs. 166+/-33 mg/dl, p<0.001), which were due to higher levels of HDL-cholesterol (52+/-1 vs. 45+/-9 mg/dl, p<0.001). Finally, in both genders, obese subjects had significantly higher levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol and triglycerides than non-obese., Conclusions: The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors is high among young male Portuguese students and preventive measures should be applied, namely regarding obesity.

To obtain further insight into the role of selenium in the development of atherosclerosis, plasma selenium and lipid parameters were determined in 126 Portuguese subjects living in the region of Lisbon, 60 women and 66 men, 20-60 years old, divided up in to three groups according to their plasma lipid profile: Group I consisted of normolipidemic subjects having plasma triglycerides and total cholesterol < 200mg/dL; Group II was composed of hypercholesteremic subjects with total cholesterol > 200mg/dL and plasma triglycerides < 200mg/dL; Group III was composed of hypercholesteremic and hypertriglyceremic subjects having total cholesterol and plasma triglycerides > 200mg/dL. Respective values for mean plasma selenium (+/- SD) in the groups were: 93 +/- 18 micrograms/L, 90 +/- 17 micrograms/L and 96 +/- 18 micrograms/L. A weak significant difference in plasma selenium between women and men was, however, observed in Group I (87 +/- 20 micrograms/L vs. 100 +/- 11 micrograms/L, p < 0.05). Regression analysis showed no significant relationship between plasma selenium and lipid parameters, except in the most hyperlipidemic women of Group III, where a weak correlation between plasma selenium and the HDL-cholesterol/total cholesterol ratio (r = 0.80, p < 0.05) was observed. The present study suggests that the relationship between selenium and HDL-cholesterol has to be further examined, taking into account nutritional, metabolic and genetic factors.