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Endocrine Reviews 24 (3): 302-312
Copyright © 2003 by The Endocrine Society

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Cardiovascular Disease: A Premature Association?

Richard S. Legro

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033

Correspondence: Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Richard S. Legro, M.D., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, P.O. Box 850, 500 University Drive, M.S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033. E-mail: rsl1{at}psu.edu


   Abstract
Top
 Abstract
I. Introduction
 II. Polycystic Ovaries
 III. Hyperandrogenism
 IV. Chronic Anovulation
 V. PCOS—A Combination of...
 VI. Summary
 References
 
Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are often assumed, a priori, to be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), given the high prevalence of the metabolic syndrome X among them. There is, however, no single definition of PCOS, and for that reason a comparison of studies that have analyzed its association with CVD is compromised from the start. Long-term studies of well characterized women with PCOS are lacking, and the link to primary cardiovascular events such as stroke or myocardial infarction remains more speculative than substantive. Epidemiological studies that have focused on isolated signs and stigmata of PCOS, such as polycystic ovaries, hyperandrogenism, or chronic anovulation, have found mixed results. There are studies that suggest a slight increase in cardiovascular events in women with polycystic ovaries, with perhaps stronger evidence between an increased risk of cardiovascular events in women with menstrual irregularity. However, there is little evidence for an association between hyperandrogenism per se and cardiovascular events. Furthermore, there are less data to substantiate an increased risk of events in women with PCOS identified on the basis of a combination of signs and symptoms, such as hyperandrogenic chronic anovulation. The existing data suggest that PCOS may adversely affect or accelerate the development of an adverse cardiovascular risk profile, and even of subclinical signs of atherosclerosis, but it does not appear to lower the age of clinical presentation to a premenopausal age group. Future studies to identify the risk of cardiovascular events in women with PCOS will benefit from clear and extensive phenotyping of PCOS abnormalities at baseline, from a prospective design, from larger sample sizes, and from longer follow-up.

I. Introduction
II. Polycystic Ovaries
A. Polycystic ovaries and cardiovascular events
B. Polycystic ovaries and cardiovascular risk factors

III. Hyperandrogenism
A. Hyperandrogenism and cardiovascular disease

IV. Chronic Anovulation
A. Chronic anovulation and cardiovascular events

V. PCOS—A Combination of Symptoms
A. Combination criteria and cardiac events
B. Combination criteria and increased subclinical cardiovascular disease
C. Combination criteria and other major CVD risk factors
D. Combination criteria and other cardiovascular risk factors

VI. Summary


   I. Introduction
Top
 Abstract
 I. Introduction
II. Polycystic Ovaries
 III. Hyperandrogenism
 IV. Chronic Anovulation
 V. PCOS—A Combination of...
 VI. Summary
 References
 
BOTH POLYCYSTIC OVARY syndrome (PCOS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are common in women. CVD remains the leading cause of death in women, and age remains one of the strongest risk factors for the development of atherosclerosis and death from a cardiovascular event. But is CVD more common and at an earlier age in women with PCOS? That is the question this review addresses. Women with PCOS have a number of reproductive and metabolic abnormalities. The reproductive abnormalities of PCOS, alluded to by its present name, were also the basis [amenorrhea, hirsutism, and polycystic ovaries (PCO)] for its initial recognition in the 1930s by a pair of gynecologists from Chicago, Stein and Leventhal (1), and are used to diagnose women with PCOS (Fig. 1Go). The metabolic abnormalities above and beyond obesity were not recognized until later, when reduced sensitivity to insulin and compensatory hyperinsulinemia were noted in women with PCOS (2, 3). The metabolic profile noted in women with PCOS is similar to the insulin resistance syndrome, a clustering within an individual of hyperinsulinemia, mild glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia, and hypertension (4). The insulin resistance syndrome (or syndrome X) has been identified as both a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes and for developing CVD (5).



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  		Figure 1. A Venn diagram of reproductive phenotypes in PCOS: the definition of PCOS is variable depending on the union or intersection of phenotypes. For the purpose of this article, PCO is defined as ovaries that appear polycystic (by histology, ultrasound, etc.), and PCOS is defined as a combination of signs and symptoms [most commonly HCA (hyperandrogenic chronic anovulation) and less commonly as HPCO (hyperandrogenic polycystic ovaries, HCA-PCO, etc.)].

 
However, the current literature has so wedded the concepts of PCOS and the insulin resistance syndrome (or syndrome X) that the two have become almost interchangeable (6). PCOS is viewed as a CVD equivalent in the minds of patient and caregiver alike. In such an environment, there is substantial encouragement to publish supporting data, and there is a prolific literature identifying CVD risk factors such as obesity, dyslipidemia, glucose intolerance, diabetes, and occasionally hypertension in women with signs of PCOS (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12). But risk factors do not necessarily equate with disease and or events (Fig. 2Go; Ref. 13).



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  		Figure 2. CVD risk factors in women identify a population of women at greater risk for developing atherosclerosis and a population of women who will experience fatal and nonfatal CVD events. This pyramid is still under construction in women with PCOS, as the bulk of evidence to date supports increased risk factors, but comparatively little has been published supporting evidence for atherosclerosis, and even less has been published supporting more frequent or earlier events.

 
The metabolic syndrome X and PCOS remain distinct. When women with the metabolic syndrome are studied for reproductive stigmata of PCOS, they are no more likely to have PCO than other segments of the population; only about half have a history of oligomenorrhea [although oligomenorrhea was twice as common in the affected population than in the controls (14)]. Nor do all women with PCOS have the metabolic syndrome. In some countries, obesity appears to be less common in women with PCOS. For instance, in the United Kingdom, a large case series of over 1700 women reported a high percentage of nonobese women with PCOS [80% (Ref. 15)]. In The Netherlands, a follow-up case series on over 300 women with PCOS showed that 56% had a body mass index (BMI = kg/m2) less than 25. Although these case series are not a representative population sample, they suggest a less obese PCOS phenotype than commonly encountered in the United States (11, 16, 17).

Not all women with PCOS have documented insulin resistance by invasive dynamic tests such at the euglycemic clamp or the frequently sampled iv glucose tolerance test. As many as 50% of obese women with PCOS may not have documented insulin resistance by intensive testing (18, 19), and this prevalence may be even lower in nonobese women with PCOS (20, 21). The clinical quantification of insulin resistance remains an imprecise science with no generally acknowledged guidelines or criteria (22). Furthermore, as discussed in more detail Section V.C, clinical hypertension is rarely noted in most women with PCOS, dyslipidemia is not invariably present, and the pattern of dyslipidemia is not always that of an insulin-resistant population. These caveats suggest that PCOS and the insulin resistance syndrome are not identical.

When approached by the more stringent requirement of cardiovascular events, i.e., increased mortality from CVD, premature mortality from CVD, or an increased incidence of cardiovascular events (stroke and/or myocardial infarction), there is little published evidence to support that women with PCOS are unduly affected. The increased cardiovascular risk ascribed to women with PCOS is almost entirely inferential, based on risk factors (Refs. 8 and 23 and Fig. 2Go). There are multiple potential reasons for the lack of published data confirming increased cardiovascular events in this group. Varying or age-specific diagnostic criteria have limited both clinical trials and long-term follow-up of women with PCOS. This heterogeneity of diagnostic criteria is both confounding and confusing when assessing CVD in women with PCOS (Fig. 1Go). The lack of any measure of hyperinsulinemia and/or insulin resistance in any of the current diagnostic criteria diminishes recognition of the most plausible link between PCOS and CVD. The study of women with PCOS has been characterized by small sample sizes, usually in a premenopausal reproductive-age population, with limited follow-up. There have been few large-scale epidemiological trials of this younger female population that could document relatively rare events such as stroke and myocardial infarction. The lack of a menopausal PCOS phenotype, or more importantly the fading of the reproductive phenotype with age (24, 25), inhibits the linking of past, seemingly irrelevant, reproductive problems with current CVD in older populations.

There is the additional confounding effect of treatment on future complications of PCOS. Long-term benefits may have resulted from ovarian wedge resection or other forms of ovarian surgery. The current widespread use of insulin-sensitizing agents for women of all ages with PCOS may complicate ongoing or future studies of CVD. Finally, the alternate hypothesis must always be entertained, i.e., that PCOS is not associated with an increased CVD risk (or an earlier presentation).

This lack of universally accepted and used diagnostic criteria for the syndrome makes the comparison of studies assessing cardiovascular risk difficult. The definition of PCOS depends to a large extent on the authors of the paper. Frequently, the presence of one of the symptoms or signs of PCOS is sufficient to indicate affected status (most commonly PCO); at other times, combinations of these are the stated criteria. This review will focus on the core reproductive factors that have been used as diagnostic criteria of PCOS—hyperandrogenism, chronic anovulation, and PCO. A 1990 National Institutes of Health conference defined PCOS as a diagnosis of unexplained hyperandrogenic chronic anovulation, i.e., a diagnosis of exclusion (26). Although size and/or morphology of the ovaries were not included in these diagnostic criteria of PCOS (despite the identification of enlarged PCO in the original Stein-Leventhal Syndrome), there is a rich literature showing substantial overlap between the diagnosis of PCO and the endocrine abnormalities of anovulation and hyperandrogenism (15, 27). Although gonadotropin abnormalities (especially an excess of LH secretion) are common in women with PCOS, only rarely have they been used as diagnostic criteria in recent studies (28), and they will not be discussed further in this review. Instead, we will examine the relationship between the above-described reproductive abnormalities, both alone and in combination (Fig. 1Go), and specific risk for cardiovascular events and/or an adverse cardiovascular risk profile.


   II. Polycystic Ovaries
Top
 Abstract
 I. Introduction
 II. Polycystic Ovaries
III. Hyperandrogenism
 IV. Chronic Anovulation
 V. PCOS—A Combination of...
 VI. Summary
 References
 
PCO have been identified by direct observation at surgery, bimanual exam, histopathological inspection of pathology specimens, and a variety of imaging modalities, the most common of which is currently high-resolution transvaginal ultrasonography. Most commonly, PCO are identified by ultrasound according to the frequently cited criteria of Adams et al.(29), which include the presence of eight or more peripheral follicular cysts 10 mm in diameter or less, along with increased central ovarian stroma. This ultrasound finding is often referred to as the black "pearl necklace" sign (Fig. 3Go). PCO represent a final common phenotype of a wide variety of etiologies, including a number of hyperandrogenic and/or insulin-resistant states, but may also be present in women who appear reproductively normal with normal menses and androgen levels. Up to 30% of the reproductive-age population may have PCO in large case series (30, 31, 32), compared with around 5% of women with hyperandrogenism and chronic anovulation [4% in Alabama from a study phenotyping job applicants at an academic health center (16), 6.5% in a female Spanish blood donor population (33), and 6.8% in a cross-sectional survey of the Greek island of Lesbos (34)].



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  		Figure 3. A polycystic ovary on transvaginal ultrasound. Note the subcapsular string of small follicles (pearl necklace sign) surrounding an increased area of central stroma.

 
This suggests that the prevalence of PCO in the reproductive-age female population greatly exceeds that of other endocrine-related diagnostic criteria (16) (34). Finally, women with the endocrine syndrome of PCOS do not invariably display PCO, as other ovarian morphologies, both normal and abnormal, such as hyperthecosis (35) or discordant ovaries of varying morphology (36), may be present. These latter entities suggest that ovarian morphology in PCOS may be more of a continuous variable than a categorical one, with PCO representing only a part of the spectrum.

A. Polycystic ovaries and cardiovascular events
Despite the periodic discordance between PCO and PCOS, many of the largest and best designed studies of long-term health risks in women with PCOS have been done using ovarian morphology. In older women presently under study, ovarian morphology during their reproductive years may be retrieved from hospital records (i.e., pathology report, operative notes, etc. from a wedge resection/oophorectomy) and at least is not subject to the recall bias of a menstrual history in establishing a prior phenotype. But this method may also include a treatment bias if this wedge resection resulted in long-term benefits. Indeed, many of these women have experienced long-term resolution of their symptoms [infertility, anovulation, hirsutism (37)], and some researchers have theorized that there may have also been long-term reduction in their cardiovascular risk (38). However, this benefit is not supported by short-term studies of the metabolic effects of partial ovarian destruction, which have shown little effect on insulin sensitivity and dyslipidemia (39).

In a long-term follow-up study from the United Kingdom, approximately 800 women diagnosed with PCO, primarily by histopathology at the time of an ovarian wedge resection, were followed up after an average interval of 30 yr after the procedure (40). Observed death rates were compared with expected death rates using standardized mortality ratios. There was no increased death from cardiovascular-related causes, although there was an increased number of deaths due to complications of diabetes in the PCO group. A subsequent study, conducted by the same investigative group, of 345 of these women with PCO and 1060 age-matched control women included a more detailed history and a clinical exam of the subjects, allowing for a clearer diagnosis of PCOS. There was no increased long-term coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in the PCOS group, although there was evidence of increased stroke-related mortality even after adjustment for BMI (Table 1Go; Ref. 41). In a cohort of women with proven coronary artery disease (n = 143 and age less than 60 yr), PCO were noted in 42% of the women, and additionally, their presence was associated with more severe coronary artery stenosis [odds ratio (OR) of 1.7 and 95% confidence interval of 1.1–2.3 of more than 50% stenosis with PCO compared with normal ovaries (9)]. Although these studies are large in comparison with the average study of women with PCOS, they are small from the endpoint of mortality, and their conclusions require support from additional studies.


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  		Table 1. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for CHD, stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA), diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol for PCOS before and after adjusting for BMI from a retrospective cohort study of 319 women with PCOS and 1060 age-matched controls from the United Kingdom (41 )

 
B. Polycystic ovaries and cardiovascular risk factors
PCO per se in asymptomatic reproductive-age women have been associated with subtle alterations in endocrine function (42), but there are scant data that this sign alone, without other stigmata of the syndrome, elevates cardiovascular risk. Some groups have found a high prevalence (approaching 40%) of PCO in postmenopausal women, and this was associated with mild changes in cardiovascular risks with elevations in circulating triglycerides, but no difference in cholesterol levels compared with controls (43). The above-mentioned follow-up study of the United Kingdom cohort found a marked increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in the PCO group, including hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and an elevated waist-to-hip ratio (41). A similar design was used in a smaller Scandinavian cohort to identify an increased risk of diabetes and hypertension in the group with histopathological evidence of PCO (n = 32), although the sample was too small to find a difference in events (44).

A model was constructed based on risk factors in the Scandinavian case/control study to calculate the risk for myocardial infarction, and women with PCO were noted to have a 7-fold increased risk (8). Not all studies of cardiovascular physiology support an adverse risk profile; one study reported beneficial internal carotid artery flow parameters consistent with reduced vascular tone in women with PCOS (45). However, articles of the latter sort are infrequent.

There are also data that polycystic ovary morphology recedes and disappears with age. Cohort studies of women with PCOS have shown significant decreases in the prevalence of PCO on ultrasound among women in their 30s and 40s compared with younger women with PCOS (46, 47). There are unfortunately no prospective cohort studies to adequately address the effect of age on PCO.


   III. Hyperandrogenism
Top
 Abstract
 I. Introduction
 II. Polycystic Ovaries
 III. Hyperandrogenism
IV. Chronic Anovulation
 V. PCOS—A Combination of...
 VI. Summary
 References
 
Hyperandrogenism, and specifically hyperandrogenism in women with PCOS, is a nebulous diagnosis of "androgen excess" that does not virilize but exceeds normal limits. Some rely on the clinical presentation of peripheral androgen excess in women, including midline hirsutism (48), acne (49), and androgenic alopecia (50) to make the diagnosis of hyperandrogenism as part of the PCOS phenotype. Hirsutism in the larger population is somewhat more common than the endocrine syndrome of PCOS. About 8% of a racially mixed non-hospital-based female population showed evidence of mild hirsutism [Ferriman Gallwey Score > 6 (Ref. 16)]. Others rely on biochemical criteria, as opposed to clinical criteria, to document hyperandrogenism. Most commonly, this is done with serum assays to document elevation in circulating androgen levels. In recent multicenter clinical trials of women with PCOS, testosterone and/or some measure of bioavailable testosterone has been frequently used to diagnose hyperandrogenism (51, 52). Relying on a central laboratory to document biochemical hyperandrogenemia for subjects participating in a clinical trial may eliminate investigator-unique diagnosis of clinical hyperandrogenism, especially given concerns about the validity of clinical scales of peripheral androgen excess (53).

A. Hyperandrogenism and cardiovascular disease
Hyperandrogenism per se in women is not a recognized risk factor for CVD, although it is tempting to cite, as a possible reason for its importance, the earlier onset of atherosclerosis in men compared with women. Hirsutism and acne, clinical signs of hyperandrogenism, have been identified as common features of women undergoing catheterization for coronary artery disease and were associated with more severe disease (7). There is little evidence in men of a relationship between androgenic alopecia and increased cardiovascular risk, and there is even less in women (54). Iatrogenic hyperandrogenism in female-to-male transsexuals does not result in increased cardiovascular mortality (55). Because rates of CVD are very low in premenopausal populations, only studies that either measure steroid levels or bank serum/urine for future assay can provide meaningful data, as CVD presents much later in these cohorts. In a nested case reference study, there was no evidence for increased urinary androgen excretion among premenopausal Dutch women in a breast cancer screening study who later developed CVD (56). In case/control and prospective studies of postmenopausal populations, circulating androgen levels did not correlate with cardiovascular events (57, 58).

Biochemical hyperandrogenemia in a menopausal population is difficult to determine. Circulating androgen levels in the PCOS population normalize before menopause (24), and there is a similar decline over the same period in all females (59). There is also a decline in androgen production by the adrenal gland, as indicated by the declining levels of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) with age. However, the circulating levels of more potent androgens such as androstenedione and testosterone are relatively stable during and after menopause, due to persistent androgen production by the ovaries (59). Thus, relative hyperandrogenism, given the absence of estrogen production by the ovary, is a distinguishing feature of all menopausal women. Hyperandrogenism in the menopause is accentuated by a decline in circulating SHBG, due to its suppression by the lack of estrogen production (60) and by the increased insulin resistance that develops with weight increases, and possibly with aging (61). This loss in circulating SHBG, which preferentially binds androgens, leads to greater bioactivity of circulating androgen levels.

This phenomenon is demonstrated in several case-control studies of circulating androgens in women with clinical or subclinical signs of atherosclerosis in which there is no difference in total testosterone between groups but a significant depression in either circulating SHBG levels (62) or increase in free testosterone levels (63) in the affected group of women. Again, the mechanism behind this hyperandrogenemia would not be endogenous overproduction of androgens but decreased serum binding capacity and therefore increased bioactivity. In summary, the evidence for an association between hyperandrogenism per se and CVD in women is weak.


   IV. Chronic Anovulation
Top
 Abstract
 I. Introduction
 II. Polycystic Ovaries
 III. Hyperandrogenism
 IV. Chronic Anovulation
V. PCOS—A Combination of...
 VI. Summary
 References
 
The etiology of anovulation represents a spectrum ranging from hypogonadotropic hypogonadism characterized by hypoestrogenism to hypergonadotropic hypergonadism with hyperandrogenism and chronic unopposed estrogens, i.e., PCOS. Ultimately, with age, all women eventually experience menopause, a state of hypergonadotropic hypogonadism. These heterogeneous causes of anovulation confound studies linking menstrual history (and PCOS) to risk of CVD. Prior studies do show that PCOS is commonly the etiology for amenorrhea or oligomenorrhea. In an excellent prevalence study of anovulation in a non-hospital-based population, which consisted of reproductive and endocrine screening of women seeking employment at a university medical center, there was a 12% prevalence of oligo-ovulation (16). Of these, roughly a third were diagnosed with PCOS by National Institutes of Health criteria (16). Other studies of women with irregular menses show even higher prevalences of PCOS. In a study involving 247 women with oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea, 90% of those with oligomenorrhea and 73% of those with these abnormal menses had laboratory and/or clinical findings consistent with PCOS (64). This range suggests that chronic anovulation is probably the most phenotypically heterogeneous stigma of PCOS, and studies that examine anovulation per se may not be representative of the PCOS reproductive and metabolic phenotype. For instance, premature ovarian failure, characterized by prolonged hypoestrogenism, has also been associated with an increased risk of CVD (65).

A. Chronic anovulation and cardiovascular events
Despite the above-described caveats, some of the best epidemiological studies of menstrual irregularity as a marker for chronic anovulation have shown an increased risk for cardiovascular events. The Dutch breast cancer screening study found a greater incidence of anovulatory cycles during the reproductive years (based on a midluteal urine sample), in women later developing CVD (56). Utilizing a prospective cohort design from the Nurse’s Health Study (66) 82,439 female nurses provided information in 1982 on prior menstrual regularity (at ages 20–35 yr) and were followed through 1996 for cardiovascular events. Incident reports of nonfatal myocardial infarction, fatal CHD, and nonfatal and fatal stroke were made and confirmed by review of medical records.

Compared with women reporting a history of very regular menstrual cycles, women reporting usually irregular or very irregular cycles had an increased risk for nonfatal or fatal CHD (Table 2Go; Ref. 66). This increasing risk with increasing menstrual irregularity suggests a dose-response effect. Increased risks for CHD associated with prior cycle irregularity remained significant after adjustment for BMI and other several potential confounders, including family history of myocardial infarction and personal exercise history. There was a nonsignificant increase in overall stroke risk as well as in ischemic stroke risk associated with very irregular cycles. There was, unfortunately, no further characterization of the etiology of the oligomenorrhea (for instance, quantifying the amount of clinical or biochemical androgen excess). The Nurse’s Health Study has also identified oligomenorrhea and highly irregular menstrual cycles as risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes, a major risk factor in itself for CVD, especially in women (67).


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  		Table 2. Relative risks (RRs with 95% CI) for CHD as a function of menstrual cycle regularity at ages 20–35 yr

 

   V. PCOS—A Combination of Symptoms
Top
 Abstract
 I. Introduction
 II. Polycystic Ovaries
 III. Hyperandrogenism
 IV. Chronic Anovulation
 V. PCOS—A Combination of...
VI. Summary
 References
 
A syndrome is defined as a set of signs or symptoms that occur together, or, as it is referred to in light of the human genome project, a combination of varying phenotypes. The multiple phenotypes and confusing acronyms that accompany PCOS have been well recognized (68). The above-described studies that primarily identified affected subjects on a single phenotype include some of the best epidemiological studies. When we begin to examine complex phenotypes (the intersection of phenotypes as noted in Fig. 1Go), we lose large-scale studies that can determine differences in event rates, and instead focus more intently on the closer inspection of risk factors of the few, usually by single centers.

PCOS, most commonly defined by unexplained hyperandrogenic chronic anovulation, has received increasing attention or at least mention, based on the recommended diagnostic criteria from the National Institutes of Health-sponsored meeting in 1990 (26). Many research groups recruit subjects based on the endocrine criteria without reference to ovarian morphology (i.e., PCO). The combination of hyperandrogenism and PCO (with normal menses) has been used by some as sufficient diagnostic criteria for PCOS. When these women are studied for evidence of luteal progesterone production, many are anovulatory (69), and there is little evidence of increased cardiovascular risk. There has been less on chronic anovulation and PCO, in the absence of hyperandrogenism, and these phenotypes will not be discussed extensively.

A. Combination criteria and cardiac events
A large-scale epidemiological case-control study from the University of Pittsburgh, initiated in 1992, has identified cases with PCOS, primarily based on hyperandrogenic chronic anovulation (n > 200), and concurrently recruited community-based controls (n > 200) (Ref. 70). The investigators have now followed this cohort for a decade. In preliminary data reported from the follow-up, there was an increased trend toward events/disease in the PCOS group compared with the control group. Among 126 Caucasian PCOS cases, there were two myocardial infarctions, four cases of angina pectoris, and two cases of surgical cardiac intervention (an angioplasty and a coronary bypass surgery). Among 142 controls of similar age, there were no events. The OR of a cardiovascular event in a PCOS woman compared with a control was 5.91 (95% confidence interval, 0.7–135.6) (Ref. 38). One criticism of this study, which is not addressed in this preliminary data but which has consistently been controlled for in published analyses, is the greater BMI in the PCOS group compared with controls. Nonetheless, the abnormal cardiovascular risk profile has persisted in women with PCOS, even after adjustment for differences in BMI, lipids, fat distribution, etc. compared with the reference population.

Another study from the Czech Republic with a much smaller case group (n = 28) noted a higher prevalence of self-reported CHD symptoms when compared with age-matched controls (n = 752; 21% of PCOS vs. 5.2% of controls, P = 0.001) (Ref. 71). This group used diagnostic criteria of both hyperandrogenic chronic anovulation and past histopathological evidence of PCO to identify cases, but only 28 of 61 cases identified responded to the questionnaire. In the University of Pittsburgh study, the presence or absence of PCO had little effect on their cardiovascular risk (47), and the presence of PCO was primarily associated with increased incidence of reproductive abnormalities.

B. Combination criteria and increased subclinical cardiovascular disease
Several surrogate markers for atherosclerotic disease, including carotid wall thickness as determined by B-mode ultrasonography and coronary/aortic calcification as determined by electron beam computed tomography, have been studied in women with PCOS. The University of Pittsburgh performed ultrasonography of the carotid arteries on 125 women with PCOS and 142 control women from their original cohort and found a significantly higher prevalence of abnormal carotid plaque index in women with PCOS (7.2% vs. 0.7% in controls) (Ref. 72). Thus, the vast majority of predominantly premenopausal women with PCOS (93%) had no evidence for subclinical carotid atherosclerosis. No difference was noted in the intima-media thickness between PCOS and controls until the age group 45–49 yr, a difference that persisted and increased in the age group in the menopausal range (>=50 yr) (Fig. 4Go; Ref. 72). These data would suggest that an increased risk for subclinical atherosclerotic disease is not apparent until the perimenopause in women with PCOS.



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  		Figure 4. Mean intimal medial thickness (IMT) of the carotid artery in PCOS (cases) and controls by age (in 1999) from the University of Pittsburgh PCOS study. [Adapted from Talbott et al. (72 ) with permission from Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.]

 
Coronary artery calcification correlates with the degree of histopathological atherosclerosis and has been found to predict actual events (38). More recently, the University of Pittsburgh group performed a pilot study of coronary and aortic calcification in a group of 32 women with PCOS and 30 controls. There was a significantly higher rate of detectable coronary artery calcification among PCOS women compared with controls (54% vs. 24%, P < 0.05), with no difference noted in the abdominal aorta (Table 3Go). Another investigative group recently presented data from electron beam computed tomography of the coronary artery in a group of 32 women with PCOS and found a 37% prevalence of calcification compared with a 17% prevalence in a group of 52 controls, although this did not reach statistical significance (73).


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  		Table 3. Distribution of coronary and aortic calcification scores by electron beam computed tomography in PCOS cases and controls

 
C. Combination criteria and other major CVD risk factors
The major modifiable CVD risk factors are smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, diabetes, and physical inactivity. Nonmodifiable risk factors include age, gender, and family history of premature CVD. Although hypertension appears as an integral part of the insulin-resistance syndrome, women with PCOS have only occasionally been noted to have hypertension (74, 75), and large clinical studies of women with PCOS (based on hyperandrogenic chronic anovulation) have reported normal mean baseline blood pressures (76, 77). Increases in blood pressure, when noted, are usually mild and of questionable clinical significance (23, 78). This may be because hypertension is a late-developing sequelae of insulin resistance and is not found in reproductive-age women with PCOS (44).

Obesity is common among women with PCOS and is affected by a variety of factors, including genetics, physical activity, and diet. It has been estimated to affect over 50% of women with PCOS (19), but this may underestimate its true prevalence in the U.S. population. In a large multicenter clinical trial of 305 U.S. women with PCOS, mean BMI in the four treatment groups varied from 35–38 (52). Body fat distribution, especially an android or centripetal fat distribution, has been independently associated with cardiovascular mortality (stronger predictor than obesity alone) (79), and an android habitus is frequently found in women with PCOS (hyperandrogenic chronic anovulation) (52, 70, 76).

Type 2 diabetes also appears to be more common among women with PCOS. Larger case-control series have reported a prevalence of around 10% in a reproductive-age PCOS population (hyperandrogenic chronic anovulation), with a further 30% with impaired glucose tolerance (11, 17). However in these younger women with PCOS, type 2 diabetes is primarily a postprandial diabetes with normal fasting glucose levels as supported by normal glycohemoglobin levels (52). Frank hyperglycemia may develop later, as has been suggested by small follow-up series (71). There is a strong family history of type 2 diabetes: about a third of the first-degree relatives are affected (11). It is suggested in small studies of PCOS families (80) but is unknown in the larger population of PCOS families whether there is an increased incidence of CVD among the first-degree relatives of women with PCOS. However, a number of studies have shown increased cardiovascular risk profiles in first-degree relatives (81, 82).

Dyslipidemia may be the most common metabolic abnormality in PCOS, although the type and extent of the findings have been variable. Prevalence of an abnormal lipid level (borderline or high) by National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines approaches 70% (76). Thus, a substantial portion of women with PCOS may have a completely normal circulating lipid profile; and in larger published series of lipid levels in women with PCOS, mean levels, for the most part, fall within normal limits as determined by National Cholesterol Education Program cutoffs (Table 4Go). Controlling for the confounder of obesity has become the standard for analysis of lipids in PCOS women with parallel analyses in both obese and nonobese groups, with more abnormal levels usually found in the obese groups (83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89). Lifestyle factors for dyslipidemia and CVD, such as smoking, hypertension, and physical inactivity, have only rarely been controlled for when examining a PCOS population (76, 89).


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  		Table 4. Circulating lipid and lipoprotein values in PCOS women (not stratified by weight) from selected studies

 
Insulin resistance, and its frequent, but not invariant companion, compensatory hyperinsulinemia, have been associated with other distinct patterns of dyslipidemia. These include decreased levels of high-density cholesterol lipoprotein (HDL-C), increased levels of small, dense low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (LDL-C), and elevated levels of triglycerides (4). Multiple studies have reported similar findings of decreased HDL-C/increased triglycerides in the lipid profiles in PCOS women (70, 84, 85, 86, 87, 90, 91, 92). The largest case series have noted comparative elevations in LDL-C in the PCOS population (70, 76, 77, 89), a finding not usually noted in insulin-resistant states (93), but one that may be related to elevations in circulating androgen. Further multivariate analysis of the etiology of dyslipidemia in these larger series finds only a modest contribution of hyperinsulinemia (76, 77).

LDL subclasses are important predictors of CVD (94). LDL particles are heterogeneous in size, density, and composition. Small, dense LDL particles have been associated with an increased relative risk of CAD that ranges from 3- to 7-fold (95). Multiple studies have shown a high prevalence of small LDL size in women with PCOS (41, 96), although this is not always significantly different from age- and weight-comparable controls (92). Targeting and lowering LDL-C levels in at risk groups has received greater attention in the National Cholesterol Education Program revised guidelines (97).

The effect of aging on the pattern of dyslipidemia in PCOS is best addressed by the study from the University of Pittsburgh, which, upon initiation, involved an older PCOS population (in their fourth decade) (Ref. 70). This study has been extended with repeat lipid phenotyping in the cohort, and changes over time have been reported (77). This subsequent report showed persistent lipid abnormalities in the PCOS population, but, compared with the reference population, these abnormalities in total cholesterol and LDL-C tended to persist and plateau, not worsen as they did in the control population (Fig. 5Go; Ref. 77). These data were interpreted as cardiovascularly risky over a lifetime, given the prolonged exposure of women with PCOS from an early age to abnormal circulating lipid values. Another alternative interpretation is that the stability of the risk profile into and through the menopause in women with PCOS may offer them a favorable risk profile compared with the worsening levels of the control population. Further study of the effects of aging on the lipid profile and on other CVD risk factors in women with PCOS is needed.



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  		Figure 5. Calculated LDL-C and HDL-C by age, PCOS cases (diamonds) vs. controls (squares) from the University of Pittsburgh PCOS study. [Adapted from Talbott et al. (77 ) with permission from Elsevier.]

 
D. Combination criteria and other cardiovascular risk factors
There has been a proliferation of reports identifying an increased cardiovascular risk profile based on a number of newer disease markers in women with PCOS (based on varying diagnostic criteria), usually relative to controls. Space limitations prevent more extensive discussion of these, although a fuller discussion can be found in other reviews (23, 38). In summary, these abnormalities in women with PCOS include decreased cardiac systolic flow velocity (10), diastolic dysfunction (98), endothelial dysfunction (99), increased vascular stiffness (100), low-grade chronic inflammation (101), increased oxidative stress (102), altered inflammatory markers (including homocysteine, C-reactive protein, etc.; Ref. 103), altered circulating divalent cations (104), altered hemostasis including impaired fibrinolysis (105), and increased tissue plasminogen activator antigen (106). It should be noted that all studies have not demonstrated abnormalities in these markers. Normal endothelial function has been noted (107). Again, these latter studies are rare.


   VI. Summary
Top
 Abstract
 I. Introduction
 II. Polycystic Ovaries
 III. Hyperandrogenism
 IV. Chronic Anovulation
 V. PCOS—A Combination of...
 VI. Summary
References
 
There is no single definition of PCOS, and for that reason a comparison of studies that have analyzed its association with CVD is compromised from the start. Long-term studies of well characterized women with PCOS are lacking, and the link of PCOS to primary cardiovascular events such as stroke or myocardial infarction remains more speculative than substantive. There have been no prospective studies that have documented an increased risk of cardiovascular events in women with PCOS. Epidemiological studies that have focused on isolated signs and stigmata of PCOS, such as PCO, hyperandrogenism, or chronic anovulation, have found mixed results. Preliminary studies suggest a slight increase in cardiovascular events in women with PCO; there may be stronger evidence between an increased risk of cardiovascular events in women with menstrual irregularity. However, there is little evidence for an association between hyperandrogenism per se and cardiovascular events. Overall, the small size and number of these epidemiological studies have been inadequate for conditions as common as PCOS and CVD in women. Most published studies document an adverse cardiovascular-risk profile, with scattered studies showing no changes. Although PCOS may accelerate the development of an adverse cardiovascular-risk profile or even of subclinical signs of atherosclerosis, the published evidence supporting an earlier presentation of clinical disease is weak. Thus, overt CVD in women with PCOS, much like in the larger female population, appears to be a postmenopausal disease. Although insulin resistance is frequently cited as the cause of an increased risk for CVD among women with PCOS, not all women with PCOS have documented insulin resistance, and no measure of insulin sensitivity is included in current diagnostic criteria. Future studies to identify the risk of cardiovascular events in women with PCOS will benefit from clear, consistent, and extensive phenotyping of reproductive and metabolic abnormalities at baseline, from a prospective design, from larger sample sizes, and from longer follow-up.


   Footnotes
 
This work was supported by Public Health Service Grant K24 HD01476, National Cooperative Program in Infertility Research Grants U54 HD34449 and U10 HD 38992, the Reproductive Medicine Network, and General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) Grant MO1 RR 10732 to Pennsylvania State University.

Abbreviations: BMI, Body mass index; CHD, coronary heart disease; CVD, cardiovascular disease; HDL-C, high-density cholesterol lipoprotein; LDL, low-density lipoprotein; LDL-C, LDL cholesterol; OR, odds ratio; PCO, polycystic ovaries; PCOS, polycystic ovary syndrome.


   References
Top
 Abstract
 I. Introduction
 II. Polycystic Ovaries
 III. Hyperandrogenism
 IV. Chronic Anovulation
 V. PCOS—A Combination of...
 VI. Summary
 References
 

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