Abstract

SUAREZ-BAGNASCO, Mariana; GANUM, Guillermo  and  CERDA, Miguel. Personality Disorders and Atherosclerotic Coronary Plaque. Rev. argent. cardiol. [online]. 2013, vol.81, n.1, pp.39-44. ISSN 1850-3748.

Background The association between psychosocial factors and atheros­clerotic lesions, the essential substrate of ischemic heart disease, has been poorly studied. No specific studies have been published on the association between personality disorders, according to the international diagnostic criteria, and the presence of atherosclerotic coronary plaques. Objective To investigate the association between personality disorders and the presence of atherosclerotic coronary plaques, and to describe the personality of persons with and without plaques and make statistical comparisons between them. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. Seventy eight subjects between 40 and 90 years were included. All the participants underwent multislice computed tomography coronary angiography and the Salamanca screening test was used to assess personality disorders. SPSS 12.0 statistical package was used to describe and compare the personality disorders of the groups with and without atherosclerotic plaque. Results Personality disorder and plaque were present in 77% of patients; 23% had plaque but not personality disorder. The presence of plaque showed a statistically significant association (two-tailed significance level, p=0.05) with: a) histrionic personality disorder, Spearman rho coefficient: 0.250, sig 0.027, b) anxious or avoidant personality disorder, Spearman rho coefficient: 0,232, sig 0,041, and, c) the number of personality disorders, Spearman rho coefficient: 0.286, sig 0.011. There were statistically significant differences between the group with plaque and the group without plaque in the histrionic personality disorder (chi square: 4.872, sig two-sided significance level: 0.027) and anxious or avoidant personality disorder (chi square: 4.181, two-sided significance level: 0.041). Conclusion Subjects with coronary atherosclerotic plaque presented a significant association with histrionic personality disorder and anxious or avoidant personality disorder compared to subjects without plaque.

Keywords : Personality Disorders; Plaque Atherosclerotic.

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