Echolucent femoral plaques entail higher risk of echolucent carotid plaques and a more severe inflammatory profile in peripheral arterial disease.
J Vasc Surg
; 49(2): 346-51, 2009 Feb.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19028065
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
Plaque instability is recognized as a multivessel phenomenon related to inflammation. This study examined if the morphology of femoral plaques was related to that of carotid plaques.METHODS:
The echogenicity of femoral and carotid plaques of 102 patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) was studied and classified as echolucent or echorich according to the gray-scale median (GSM) value, which was 53.6 for femoral plaques and 55.2 for carotid plaques. Serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and neutrophil count were also measured.RESULTS:
Echolucent carotid plaques were more frequent in patients with echolucent than in those with echorich femoral plaques (55.8% vs 32.0%; P < .01). At multivariate analysis, femoral GSM lower than the median was the only significant predictor of echolucent carotid plaques (odds ratio [OR], 3.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.53-9.83). Patients with echolucent femoral plaques had higher serum CRP levels (P < .01) and a higher neutrophil count (P = .029) than patients with echorich femoral plaques. However, univariate analysis showed that neutrophil count (OR, 3.48; 95% CI, 1.23-9.85) but not hs-CRP was associated with echolucent carotid plaques. At multivariate analysis, neutrophil count exceeding the median remained associated with echolucent carotid plaques (OR, 5.71; 95% CI, 1.37-23.85), whereas the association between femoral and carotid echolucency was attenuated (OR, 3.75; 95% CI, 0.98-4.43).CONCLUSIONS:
In PAD, the presence of echolucent femoral plaques is associated with a greater prevalence of echolucent carotid plaques, probably as a consequence of a more pronounced inflammatory profile. This confirms and extends the finding that plaque echolucency is a multivessel phenomenon. Prospective studies are needed to assess whether carotid screening in PAD patients might contribute to improving clinical decision-making.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Doenças das Artérias Carótidas
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Aterosclerose
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Artéria Femoral
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Doença Arterial Periférica
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Inflamação
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
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Observational_studies
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Prevalence_studies
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Prognostic_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adult
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Aged
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Aged80
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2009
Tipo de documento:
Article