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Genetic influence on femoral plaque and its relationship with carotid plaque: an international twin study

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Abstract

To disentangle genetic and environmental influences on the development of femoral plaques using a population of adult twins. To evaluate the potential role of shared genetic and environmental factors in the co-occurrence of femoral and carotid plaques. The sample included 566 twins belonging to 164 monozygotic (MZ) and 119 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, who underwent peripheral arterial assessment by B-mode ultrasound in different centers. The variance in femoral plaques onset was due to genetic factors and the remaining 50% was explained by common (15%) and unique (35%) environmental factors. Findings on sidedness and number of femoral plaques indicated that also these traits were mainly under genetic control. No effect of common environment was found on plaques composition, and variability of this trait was explained by genetics (64%) and unique environment (36%). Covariation between the liabilities to carotid and femoral plaques was mainly attributed to shared genes (77%), with the remaining 23% explained by individual-specific environmental factors shared by the two districts. Inter-individual differences in plaque onset as well as in their number, sidedness and composition are mainly genetic in origin. The results on the cooccurrence of carotid and femoral plaque underline the genetic role in atherogenesis.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Vascular and Interventional Radiology Unit, Department of Radiology, Oncology and Anatomic Pathology, Policlinico Umberto I, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy

      Pierleone Lucatelli, Beatrice Sacconi, Carlo Cirelli, Fabrizio Fanelli & Carlo Catalano

    2. Centre for Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

      Corrado Fagnani, Maria Antonietta Stazi, Miriam Salemi & Emanuela Medda

    3. Department of Radiology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

      Adam Domonkos Tarnoki, David Laszlo Tarnoki & Bence Fejer

    4. Hungarian Twin Registry, Budapest, Hungary

      Adam Domonkos Tarnoki & David Laszlo Tarnoki

    5. Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Division, Department of Surgery “Paride Stefanini”, Policlinico Umberto I, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy

      Alessandro d’Adamo

    6. MTA-SE Cardiovascular Imaging Research Group, Heart and Vascular Center, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

      Pal Maurovich-Horvat, Adam L. Jermendy, Bela Merkely & Andrea A. Molnar

    7. 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Bajcsy Zsilinszky Hospital, Budapest, Hungary

      Gyorgy Jermendy

    8. Unità di Medicina Interna, Ospedale ‘S. Maria’, Università di Perugia, Terni, Italy

      Giacomo Pucci & Giuseppe Schillaci

    9. Department of Neurosciences, University of Padua School of Medicine, Padua, Italy

      Filippo Farina, Giorgio Meneghetti & Claudio Baracchini

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    1. Pierleone Lucatelli
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    Correspondence to Pierleone Lucatelli.

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    All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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    Pierleone Lucatelli and Corrado Fagnani have contributed equally to this article.

    Giuseppe Schillaci: Deceased.

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    Lucatelli, P., Fagnani, C., Tarnoki, A.D. et al. Genetic influence on femoral plaque and its relationship with carotid plaque: an international twin study. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 34, 531–541 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-017-1256-2

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