• Željko Reiner, Luis E Simental-Mendía, Massimiliano Ruscica, Niki Katsiki, Maciej Banach, Khalid Al Rasadi, Tannaz Jamialahmadi, and Amirhossein Sahebkar.
• University Hospital Center Zagreb, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
• Arch Med Sci. 2019 Oct 1; 15 (6): 1365-1374.

IntroductionThe aim of this meta-analysis was to establish whether vascular pulse wave velocity (PWV) as a measure of arterial stiffness is changed in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH).Material And MethodsStudies comparing PWV between patients with FH and controls were searched in PubMed-Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases (up to November 26, 2017). A meta-analysis was conducted using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis V2 software. A random-effects model (using the DerSimonian-Laird method) and the generic inverse variance method were used to compensate for the heterogeneity of studies concerning demographic characteristics and differences in the studies' design.ResultsThis meta-analysis of 8 studies involving 317 patients with FH and 244 non-FH individuals did not suggest a significantly altered PWV in FH patients versus controls (weighted mean difference (WMD): 0.17 m/s, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.31, 0.65, p = 0.489; I 2 = 80.15%). The result was robust in the sensitivity analysis and its significance was not influenced after omitting each of the included studies from the meta-analysis. Subanalysis of 6 of these studies which had data on intima-media thickness (IMT) indicated an increased IMT in FH patients when compared with controls (WMD = 0.03 mm, 95% CI: 0.003, 0.06, p = 0.034; I 2 = 48.95%). However, the effect size was sensitive to some of the included studies.ConclusionsThis meta-analysis suggests that FH patients do not have significantly altered PWV when compared with normocholesterolemic individuals. However, a subanalysis of studies in which IMT was measured indicated that IMT is increased in FH patients compared with controls.Copyright: © 2019 Termedia & Banach.

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