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Low levels of vitamin D have been associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk. However, few studies have evaluated the association between vitamin D status and peripheral arterial disease (PAD). We therefore aimed to investigate whether low 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels were associated with increased risk of PAD in the Korean population. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 8,960 subjects aged 50 years or older without known myocardial infarction or stroke. PAD was defined by an ankle brachial blood pressure index ＜0.9. Multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between serum 25(OH)D levels and risk of PAD. Of the 8,960 subjects, 3.0% had PAD and the age and sex adjusted prevalence of PAD decreased with the increasing 25(OH)D quartile. After adjusting for potential confounders and parathyroid hormones, serum 25(OH)D levels were associated with a significantly decreased risk of PAD (OR for one SD increase, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.95-1.0, P for trend=0.040). Compared with the first 25(OH)D quartile, the odds of PAD were 0.86 (95% CI, 0.62-1.21), 0.67 (95% CI, 0.46-0.97), and 0.71 (95% CI, 0.49-1.04) for the second, third, and fourth quartiles, respectively. In this cross-sectional study, we found that low serum 25(OH)D levels were associated with an increased risk of PAD, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors and parathyroid hormone. Our findings suggest that low vitamin D levels may contribute to PAD in the Korean population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have investigated relationships between APOE genotype and bone mineral density (BMD). However, the results of these studies have been inconsistent. Few studies have been carried out in Asian populations. We studied the relationship of the APOE gene polymorphism and BMD in two large population-based studies. The datasets included the Dong-gu Study (3575 men and 5335 women) and the Namwon Study (2310 men, 3512 women). Lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD were measured by dual- energy X-ray absorptiometry. APOE genotypes were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism. The APOE genotypes were classified into APOE E2 (E2/E2 and E2/E3), APOE E3 (E3/E3), and APOE E4 (E3/E4 and E4/E4). The genotype distribution of the study population was in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There were no significant differences among APOE genotype groups in lumbar and femoral neck BMD in either cohort. Our data do not support the hypothesis that the APOE genotype is associated with BMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]