RESUMO
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The clinical significance of dolichoarteriopathies (kinking, coiling, tortuosity) and their prognosis have not yet been clearly defined. A study was performed in outpatients in order to evaluate the cardiovascular risk factors of dolichoarteriopathies. METHODS: A total of 1220 subjects (620 males and 600 females, aged between 25 and 89 years old) were examined using color Doppler ultrasonography of the extracranial carotid arteries with an Acuson 128 XP-5 scan and 7 MHz linear probe. The reason for the test was the presence of clinical symptoms or cardiovascular risk factors. The risk factors studied included: arterial hypertension [systolic (> 140 mmHg) and/or diastolic arterial pressure (> 90 mmHg)], hypercholesterolemia (total cholesterol > 200 mg/dl), diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking. Patients were divided as follows: patients with arterial hypertension alone, patients with arterial hypertension associated with other cardiovascular risk factors (hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, smoking), patients with other cardiovascular risk factors (hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, smoking), patients without risk factors. RESULTS: In 316 (25.9%) patients with dolichoarteriopathies, arterial hypertension alone was present in 98 (31%), arterial hypertension associated with other cardiovascular risk factors in 85 (26.3%) and other cardiovascular risk factors in 54 (17%), whereas 75 (25%) did not present cardiovascular risk factors. In the 904 subjects without dolichoarteriopathies, arterial hypertension alone was present in 254 (28%), arterial hypertension associated with other cardiovascular risk factors in 213 (23.6%) and other cardiovascular risk factors in 191 (21.1%), whereas 241 (27.2%) did not present cardiovascular risk factors. In 316 subjects with dolichoarteriopathies, cardiovascular risk factors were equally present in the two sexes without statistically significant differences. In cases with kinking and tortuosity, cardiovascular risk factors were equally present in the two sexes, whereas colling was more frequently associated with arterial hypertension alone in males and with arterial hypertension associated with other risk factors in females, showing a statistically significant difference. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study reveal that the presence of risk factors in patients with dolichoarteriopathies is comparable to that in subjects without dolichoarteriopathies. Also in the three types of dolichoarteriopathies (kinking, coiling and tortuosity), cardiovascular risk factors were equally present. Therefore, these results appear to lay the role of arterial hypertension or other cardiovascular risk factors in the genesis of diolichoarteriopathies open to question.