Partial Mediation by Cadmium Exposure of the Association between Tobacco Smoking and Atherosclerotic Plaques in the Carotid Artery
Exposure to cadmium confers increased cardiovascular risk. Tobacco smoke contains cadmium, which, hypothetically, may mediate parts of the tobacco-associated risk of developing atherosclerotic plaques. Baseline data from the Swedish Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort (1991-1996) were used to test this hypothesis. Mediation analysis was used to examine associations between smoking and blood cadmium level