Relation between carotid vulnerable plaques and peripheral leukocyte: A case-control study of comparison utilizing multi-parametric CEUS

Abstract

Background This study evaluates carotid vulnerable plaques using contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and explores the relationship between vulnerable plaques and leukocytes. Methods Sixty-two symptomatic and 54 asymptomatic patients underwent CEUS. The images were analyzed using time-intensity and fitting curves, and peak (PTIC), mean (MTIC), peak (PFC), sharpness (SFC), and area under the curve (AUCFC) were obtained. The relations between CEUS parameters and leukocytes were analyzed. Results In the symptomatic group, total leukocytes and neutrophils were higher, while lymphocyte was decreased; PTIC, MTIC, PFC, SFC and AUCFC were significantly higher; MTIC and AUCFC were negatively correlated with lymphocytes, and MTIC was positively correlated with neutrophils. Classification and regression tree analysis showed that MTIC at a cutoff of 20.8 and AUCFC at a cutoff of 8.8 resulted in a predictive of acute cerebral infarction, accuracy of 84.3%, sensitivity of 87.1%, and specificity of 81.5%. Conclusions CEUS is a feasible predictor of vulnerable plaques, and related to leukocytes.

Diabetes and carotid artery disease: a narrative review

“…Perivascular inflammation and local adiponectin levels may influence carotid intraplaque inflammatory activities (55,56). These studies included patients with DM.…”