[Carotid kinking and arterial hypertension. Preliminary results of the OPI program].

The relationship between carotid kinking and arterial hypertension is stressed, based on the results of the first two years of an epidemiological research on prevalence of carotid lesions capable of producing cerebral ischemia in a population, aged 45 to 75, resident within the district USSL no. 69 (Parabiago), Lombardia. Reported data are referred to 13,936 subjects that underwent the first level of screening between January 29th 1990 and December 31st 1991. 1,386 subjects underwent further examination by color coded echo flow (second level of screening) due to suspected carotid lesion; they were divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of arterial hypertension. The distribution of these groups does not repeat that of the general population (p < 1 x 10(-6)). 158 subjects were affected with carotid kinking. Within the normotension group (439; 31.67%), 39 (8.88%) were demonstrated to harbor kinkings, while in the hypertension group (947; 68.33%) 141 (14.88%). Thus, the difference between the two groups remains largely below the limits of statistical significance (p > 1). The association between kinking and hypertension is not affected by sex (p > 1 x 10(-1)), regardless of a significant difference of distribution between the sexes (145 women and 40 men: p < 1 x 10(-6)). The conclusions point out that the evidence of this study strongly stresses that the association between carotid kinking and arterial hypertension is incidental.