Letter by Scarabin-Carré and Scarabin Regarding Article, “Associations of Endogenous Estradiol and Testosterone Levels With Plaque Composition and Risk of Stroke in Subjects With Carotid Atherosclerosis”

We have read with great interest the article by Glisic et al1 on endogenous sex hormones in relation with carotid plaque composition and incident stroke. In women, the positive association of circulating estradiol with both presence of vulnerable carotid plaque and risk of stroke was the main finding. This result is remarkably consistent with our previous findings from the 3C Study (Three City Cohort) showing that high level of plasma estradiol emerged as a new predictor of ischemic arterial disease in older postmenopausal women.2 As pointed out in the Editorial by Rexrode,3 few studies addressed the role of sex hormone …