Assessment of the common carotid artery wall stiffness by Shear Wave Elastography in Behcet's disease.

Abstract

To evaluate endothelial dysfunction and subclinical atherosclerosis in Behcet's disease (BD) by measuring the commoncarotid artery (CCA) wall stiffness and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT). We prospectivelyevaluated CIMT and the CCA wall stiffness of 34 BD patients and 28 age/sex-matched controls. CIMT measurementswere performed from the posterior wall of the carotid artery approximately 10 mm proximal to the initiation of the carotidbulb using B-mode ultrasound. The stiffness of the CCA was measured from the superficial wall of the CCA using shear waveelastography (SWE). SWE measurements were recorded as shear wave velocity (SWV) using m/s as a unit. Themean right (0.5±0.11 mm) and left (0.5±0.14 mm) CIMT of the patients were significantly higher compared to the mean right(0.41±0.07 mm) and left (0.41±0.11 mm) CIMT of the healthy controls (p=0.001 and p= 0.003 respectively). The mean right(3.72±0.94 m/s) and left (3.57±0.72 m/s) CCA wall stiffness of the patients were significantly higher compared to the meanright (2.42±0.49 m/s) and left (2.56±0.49 m/s) CCA wall stiffness of the controls (p<0.001 for both). SWEseems to be a promising modality to evaluate endothelial dysfunction in BD by interpreting the arterial stiffness, and SWEmight be an important adjunct to clinical and laboratory findings, and imaging modalities to assess cardiovascular risk in BD.Moreover, SWE evaluation of the arterial stiffness might assist us to understand pathophysiological aspects of BD.