Background: Increasingly the potential harm from high cholesterol intake, and specifically from egg yolks,
is considered insignificant. We therefore assessed total plaque area (TPA) in patients attending Canadian
vascular prevention clinics to determine if the atherosclerosis burden, as a marker of arterial damage,
was related to egg intake. To provide perspective on the magnitude of the effect, we also analysed the
effect of smoking (pack-years).
Methods: Consecutive patients attending vascular prevention clinics at University Hospital had baseline
measurement of TPA by duplex ultrasound, and filled out questionnaires regarding their lifestyle and
medications, including pack-years of smoking, and the number of egg yolks consumed per week times
the number of years consumed (egg-yolk years).
Results: Data were available in 1262 patients; mean (SD) age was 61.5 (14.8) years; 47% were women.
Carotid plaque area increased linearly with age after age 40, but increased exponentially with pack-years
of smoking and with egg-yolk years. Plaque area in patients consuming