B-scan ultrasound examination of the carotid arteries within a representative population (MONICA Project Augsburg).

Abstract

As part of the MONICA project carried out in Augsburg, 1388 male and female subjects, aged 25 to 65 years, participated in a B-scan ultrasound examination of the carotid arteries. The segments of the carotid arteries examined on both sides of the neck were the A. carotis communis, the A. carotis interna, and A carotis externa. As a result plaques were found in 330 subjects (23.9%). The presence of plaques in subjects is strongly correlated to age (increasing trend in both sexes, P less than 0.001) and the process of establishing plaques starts in men earlier than in women (P less than 0.01). For both sexes a different correlation structures is found for the relationship of cardiovascular risk factors to presence of plaques as well as to number of plaques in the carotid arteries. In men, total cholesterol (P less than 0.05) and personal history of diabetes, myocardial infarction, and stroke (P less than 0.01) were positively correlated with the presence of plaques while HDL/total cholesterol ratio shows a negative correlation (P less than 0.01). In women, none of the analyzed risk factors is found to correlate significantly with the presence of plaques. Regarding the number of vessels with plaques, a consistent and significant relationship with both hypertension and total cholesterol is seen in males and with hypertension in females. Comparing the different factors analyzed, age is obviously much more related to the occurrence of plaques than all the other risk factors together. Age is followed by a decrease in HDL cholesterol and, at a much lower level, by hypertension and smoking.