Carotid artery atherosclerosis (CAA) is one of the major high-risk
mechanisms of stroke. Relationship between IMT, carotid plaque echogenicity and
carotid stenosis assessed by ultrasound has not been systemically studied,
especially in subjects with mild to moderate carotid stenosis. In this study we
measured these 3 different ultrasound-derived quantitative traits concurrently
in the community population of southern China and compared their associations.
We found that IMTmean in the non-stenosis group (0%), <30% group
and ≥30% group were 0.72 ± 0.11 mm, 0.85 ± 0.13 mm, 0.90 ± 0.17 mm
respectively. IMTmean of the <30% group and ≥30% group were
higher than that of 0% group (P < 0.01),
≥30% group was higher than <30% group (P < 0.01). IMTmean in the no-plaque group, hyperechoic group
and hypoechoic group were 0.75 ± 0.13 mm, 0.87 ± 0.17 mm, 0.84 ± 0.15 mm
respectively. IMTmean of the hyperechoic group and the hypoechoic
group was higher than that of the no-plaque group (P < 0.01), IMTmean of the hypoechoic group was lower
than that of the hyperechoic group, though with no statistic significance (P = 0.58). The proportion of hyperechoic
or hypoechoic plaque in the <30% group was higher than that in the
non-stenosis group (P < 0.01), as
well as proportion of hypoechoic plaque in the ≥30% group was higher than that
in the <30% group (P < 0.01).
Our study indicated that there is definite correlation between stenosis
severity, plaque echogenicity characteristics and IMT in evaluation the extent
of CAA with ultrasound. The result suggests that the 3 different
ultrasound-derived quantitative traits, are a progressing process, and this
process increases the risk of stroke, thus medical treatment especially
stabilizing the plaques is necessary.