Determinants of carotid wall echolucency in a cohort of European high cardiovascular risk subjects: A cross-sectional analysis of IMPROVE baseline data

Frigerio, B. et al. (2024) Determinants of carotid wall echolucency in a cohort of European high cardiovascular risk subjects: A cross-sectional analysis of IMPROVE baseline data. Biomedicines, 12(4), 737. (doi: 10.3390/biomedicines12040737)

Abstract

Echolucency, a measure of plaque instability associated with increased cardiovascular risk, can be assessed in both the carotid plaque and the plaque-free common carotid intima–media (IM) complex as a gray-scale median (plaque-GSM and IM-GSM, respectively). The impact of specific vascular risk factors on these two phenotypes remains uncertain, including the nature and extent of their influence. This study aims to seek the determinants of plaque-GSM and IM-GSM. Plaque-GSM and IM-GSM were measured in subjects from the IMPROVE study cohort (aged 54–79, 46% men) recruited in five European countries. Plaque-GSM was measured in subjects who had at least one IMTmax ≥ 1.5 mm (n = 2138), whereas IM-GSM was measured in all subjects included in the study (n = 3188). Multiple regression with internal cross-validation was used to find independent predictors of plaque-GSM and IM-GSM. Plaque-GSM determinants were plaque-size (IMTmax), and diastolic blood pressure. IM-GSM determinants were the thickness of plaque-free common carotid intima–media complex (PF CC-IMTmean), height, systolic blood pressure, waist/hip ratio, treatment with fibrates, mean corpuscular volume, treatment with alpha-2 inhibitors (sartans), educational level, and creatinine. Latitude, and pack-yearscode were determinants of both plaque-GSM and IM-GSM. The overall models explain 12.0% of plaque-GSM variability and 19.7% of IM-GSM variability. A significant correlation (r = 0.51) was found between plaque-GSM and IM-GSM. Our results indicate that IM-GSM is a weighty risk marker alternative to plaque-GSM, offering the advantage of being readily measurable in all subjects, including those in the early phases of atherosclerosis where plaque occurrence is relatively infrequent.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding: This research uses data derived, at least in part, from “The IMPROVE study”, a project funded by the European Commission (Contract number: QLG1-CT-2002-00896) and by the Ministry of Health, Italy (RC. 2771964-4.10; RF-2018-12366565) (more details in Conflicts of Interest).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Strawbridge, Dr Rona

Creator Roles

Strawbridge, R.: Resources, Writing – review and editing, Supervision

• Authors: Frigerio, B., Coggi, D., Bonomi, A., Amato, M., Capra, N., Colombo, G. I., Sansaro, D., Ravani, A., Savonen, K., Giral, P., Gallo, A., Pirro, M., Gigante, B., Eriksson, P., Strawbridge, R. J., Mulder, D. J., Tremoli, E., Veglia, F., Baldassarre, D., and IMPROVE Study Group,
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > Mental Health and Wellbeing
• Journal Name: Biomedicines
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2227-9059
• ISSN (Online): 2227-9059
• Copyright Holders: Copyright: © 2024 by the authors
• First Published: First published in Biomedicines 12(4): 737
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence