Effect of vascular risk factors on increase in carotid and femoral intima-media thickness. Identification of a risk scale

Protocol for Measuring Carotid Intima-Media Thickness That Best Correlates With Cardiovascular Risk and Target Organ Damage

“…This correlation of CC-IMT with CVR estimated with the (10-20%) risk to the high-risk group (>20%) 1,21 . Berni et al 22 compared the value of CC-IMT with traditional risk factors and concluded that CC-IMT was the most sensitive predictor. With the Framingham scale, a risk increase by 1.98% points (95% CI: 0.69-3.26) may be expected in this study with each unit (mm) increase in mean CC-IMT, and a risk increase by 1.75% points (95% CI: 0.70-2.79) may be expected in this study with each unit increase in maximum CC-IMT.…”

“…These results are in line with those reported by McDonald et al 18 and other authors. 22,24 Another important issue is which CC-IMT measure should be used (mean CC-IMT, maximum CC-IMT), because no consensus has given a definitive answer. Maximum values have been reported by some studies to best correlate with future cardiovascular events, but the reason for selecting such values instead of mean values was not given.…”

Carotid intima-media thickness and carotid plaque represent different adaptive responses to traditional cardiovascular risk factors

“…Moreover, according to previous studies, subjects presented multiple risk factors, which made it difficult to establish whether an increase in pathological events could be correlated with the degree of CIMT or with the number and type of risk factors present. The influence of the traditional vascular risk factors on the arterial hyperplasia was not clearly established as well [37]. Most of subjects in the present study presented more than one risk factor and received more than one medical therapy.…”

Advantages of carotid revascularization in the elderly

“…Therefore prevention and early diagnosis especially in the asymptomatic period is mandatory. The risk arising from a carotid stenosis is not only related to its morphological aspects, its structure and percentage of stenosis but also to the efficiency of the cerebral supplying circuits and to cerebral reserve flow which is a factor independent from the risk of stroke, both in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients [3]. The definition of asymptomaticity is not only clinical.…”