[Carotid Plaque Instability in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome as Assessed by Ultrasound Duplex Scanning].

ABSTRACT

AIM: to study carotid plaques structure in patients with acute coronary syndrome by ultrasound duplex scanning. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We included in this study143 patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) aged 32-83 years and 28 patients with documented coronary heart disease (CHD) aged 46-83 years. Duplex scanning of carotid arteries was carried out with Philips iU22 ultrasound system and L9-3 linear array transducer. Atherosclerotic plaques in CCA, CCA bifurcation, and ICA from right and left side were investigated. Off-line analysis of B-mode images and plaque gray scale median (GSM) was performed with computer semiautomated workstation MultiVox. RESULTS: 378 plaques of ACS and 59 plaques of CHD patients were studied. We assessed traditional (heterogenous structure, hypoechogenic component, irregular plaque surface) as well as additional (positive remodeling, "layered" structure of plaque, local calcification) criteria of plaque instability. In ACS compared with CHD group there were more plaques with hypoechogenic component (43.4 and 28.8%, p=0.0459), heterogenous structure (77.8 and 64.4%, p=0.0327), irregular surface including irregularities more than 2.0 mm (22.5 and 6.8%, p=0.0048, respectively). There was significant difference in "layered" structure (55.7 and 35.8%, p=0.0011) and insignificant difference in positive remodeling (16.3 and 7.5%, p=0.06, respectively). There were no differences of GSM value (53.1 and 57.2, p=0.24) and local calcification (23.2 and 24.5%, p=0.23, respectively). CONCLUSION: In our study ultrasound duplex scanning revealed that signs of plaque instability in carotid arteries in patients with ACS were more frequent than in patients with stable CHD. The newly introduced parameter "layered" structure of atherosclerotic plaque was found to be most significant.