Age and carotid remodeling: a quantitative study of vascular structure with three dimensional ultrasound / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the vessel structure changes of carotid artery with age in normal adults with a newly-developed 3-dimensional ultrasound imaging modality.Methods One hundred and twenty-five normal adult volunteers were divided into five groupsgroup A,20-29 years old,25 cases;group B,30-39 years old,27 cases;group C,40-49 years old,28 cases;group D,50-59 years old,23 cases;group E,older than 60 years old,22 cases.The straight sections of common carotid arteries were scanned by full-volume three-dimensional ultrasound probe.With a vessel plaque quantification software (VPQ),the following parameters were obtainedintima-media thickness (IMT),vessel total area (VTA),vessel lumen area (VLA),vessel wall area (VWA),and normalized wall index (NWI).Results IMT,VTA,VWA,VLA and NWI were all positively correlated with age (r =0.79,0.48,0.77,0.27 and 0.67 respectively,P =0.00),and there was significant difference among age groups (P ＜0.01).IMT,VTA,VWA increased with age gradually whereas VLA increased only in group E and NWI showed no significant difference between group E and D.VWA and VTA of males were significantly greater than those of females in group A,B and C,and VLA of males was significantly greater than females in group A and B.There was no significant difference in IMT and NWI between gender groups.Conclusions Age is an important factor to carotid remodeling,and IMT,VTA and VWA increase with age,but VLA keeps constant in people under 60-year-old while NWI becomes stable in people over 50-year-old.It is essential to consider the physiological changes of carotid with age when pathophysiological process of atherosclerosis is involved.