A new Swedish study has shown that elderly men in the highest quartile of serum testosterone levels have around a 30% lower risk of cardiovascular events over five years compared with men in the lower three quartiles.

And the association remains even after adjustment for traditional cardiovascular risk factors and excluding those with cardiovascular disease at baseline.

Ohlsson and colleagues analyzed baseline levels of testosterone in 2416 men aged 69 to 81 years who were participating in the prospective, population-based Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS). They also measured SHBG and obtained cardiovascular clinical outcomes from central Swedish registries.

Over a median of five years of follow-up, there were 485 fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events, and both total testosterone and SHBG levels were inversely associated with risk of cardiovascular events (trend over quartiles p=0.009 and p=0.012, respectively).

Men in the highest quartile of testosterone (>550 ng/dL) had a lower risk of cardiovascular events compared with men in the lower three quartiles (hazard ratio 0.70; p=0.002).

http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/751310?src=cmemp