Heritability of Cardiothoracic Ratio and Aortic Arch Calcification in TwinsShow others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: Medicina (Kaunas), ISSN 1010-660X, E-ISSN 1648-9144, Vol. 57, no 5, article id 421
Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Background and Objectives: Aortic arch calcification (AoAC) is associated with a variety of cardiovascular complications. The measurement and grading of AoAC using posteroanterior (PA) chest X-rays are well established. The cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) can be simultaneously measured with PA chest X-rays and used as an index of cardiomegaly. The genetic and environmental contributions to the degree of the AoAC and CTR are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of genetics and environmental factors on the AoAC and CTR.
Materials and Methods: A total of 684 twins from the South Korean twin registry (261 monozygotic, MZ and 81 dizygotic, DZ pairs; mean age 38.6 ± 7.9 years, male/female = 264/420) underwent PA chest X-rays. Cardiovascular risk factors and anthropometric data were also collected. The AoAC and CTR were measured and graded using a standardized method. A structural equation method was used to calculate the proportion of variance explained by genetic and environmental factors behind AoAC and CTR.
Results: The within-pair differences were low regarding the grade of AoAC, with only a few twin pairs showing large intra-pair differences. We found that the thoracic width showed high heritability (0.67, 95% CI: 0.59-0.73, p = 1). Moderate heritability was detected regarding cardiac width (0.54, 95% CI: 0.45-0.62, p = 0.572) and CTR (0.54, 95% CI: 0.44-0.62, p = 0.701). Conclusions: The heritable component was significant regarding thoracic width, cardiac width, and the CTR.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI, 2021. Vol. 57, no 5, article id 421
Keywords [en]
Aortic calcification, atherosclerosis, cardiothoracic ratio, heritability, twin study
National Category
Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-91649DOI: 10.3390/medicina57050421ISI: 000654332500001PubMedID: 33925456Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85105204314OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-91649DiVA, id: diva2:1553068
Note
Funding Agencies:
Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Korean government (MSIT) 2020R1C1C1013980
Genome Center of the Korean CDC 2012-E71011-00
2021-05-072021-05-072024-01-02Bibliographically approved