PPARA and carotid atherosclerosis: According to findings of the previous studies (18, 21), carotid atherosclerosis was defined as presence of any carotid plaque or any carotid stenosis ≥15% or mean IMT > 0.9 mm in this study, and we found that there were significant associations between the polymorphisms of IL1A rs1609682, PPARA rs4253655, and HABP2 rs7923349 and carotid atherosclerosis.