BACKGROUND: Several dermatologic findings have been associated with coronary artery disease and represent easily visualized signs that may contribute to classify cardiac risk by a non-invasive technique. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the prevalence of some dermatologic findings in patients with or without coronary artery disease. METHODS: A case-control study involving male patients submitted to coronary angiography was performed. We included patients with greater than 50% obstruction of at least one coronary artery. Both groups were assessed as to presence of diagonal earlobe crease and preauricular crease, alopecia and thoracic hairiness. The results were adjusted for known cardiac risk factors: age, body mass index, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and smoking. RESULTS: One hundred and ten individuals were evaluated (80 patients, 30 controls). The prevalence of diagonal earlobe crease in patients (60%) was greater than controls (30%) (p<0.05). Androgenetic alopecia and thoracic hairiness were not associated to coronary artery disease. The odds ratio for diagonal earlobe crease was 3.1 (1.2-8.3) and for preauricular crease was 5.5 (1.9-16.3). The simultaneous finding of diagonal earlobe crease and preauricular crease resulted in a positive predictive value of 90.0%. CONCLUSIONS: The study detected a positive association between bilateral diagonal earlobe crease and bilateral preauricular crease with coronary artery disease. The simultaneous finding of both folds had high predictivity for coronary artery disease.
Coronary arteriosclerosis; Ear, external; Male; Risk factors
