Parental CHD events were validated prospectively by a physician endpoint committee.

Early-onset parental CHD, in particular, identifies offspring with a strong familial predisposition to atherosclerosis.

There was also no significant association of common carotid IMT with premature or any parental CHD.

In analyses without a restriction on parental age of CHD onset, the association between carotid IMT and parental CHD was not statistically significant.