Relationship between Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Carotid Artery Intimal-Medial Thickness

• Main Authors: Davis, Patricia H, Dawson, Jeffrey D
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 2006
• Subjects: Greenland; Riley
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195150650.003.0005; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52225125/isbn-9780195150650-book-part-5.pdf

Abstract In older adults, measurement of carotid artery intimal-medial thickness (IMT) has gained acceptance as a noninvasive, inexpensive method to assess the extent of atherosclerosis. Several pieces of evidence support the validity of this method. Measurements of carotid IMT with ultrasonography in vivo (Fig. 5.1) correlate well with pathologic measurements (Schulte-Altedorneburg et al., 2001) and are reproducible (Riley et al., 1992). Increased carotid IMT and the rate of change of carotid IMT over time are significantly related to known cardiovascular risk factors (Chambless et al., 2002). Carotid IMT is positively associated with incident myocardial infarction (MI) (Salonen and Salonen, 1993; Bots et al., 1997; Chambless et al., 1997; O’Leary et al., 1999), and stroke (Chambless et al., 2000) and this association persists after adjustment for known cardiovascular risk fac tors. Similarly, increased carotid IMT has been associated with a reduction in the ankle-arm index, a marker of peripheral vascular disease (Bots et al., 1994). The Writing Group II of the American Heart Association Prevention Conference V concluded that measurement of carotid IMT in asymptomatic persons over 45 years of age adds incremental information to traditional risk factor assessment (Greenland et al., 2000). In addition, progression of the atherosclerotic lesion by serial measurements of carotid IMT is used as an end point in clinical trials of therapies to retard the atherosclerotic process (Mukherjee and Yadav, 2002).