Correlation between common carotid artery mechanical stress and cerebral small vessel disease

Abstract

Objective To investigate the correlation between the indicators of common carotid artery mechanical dynamics, a circumferential wall tension (CWT) and a shear stress (SS), and cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). Methods The neurological outpatients without obvious cardiovascular disease were enrolled consecutively. The inner diameters of carotid arteries and blood flow velocity of the patients were measured by ultrasound examination, and their CWT and SS were calculated. Lacunar infarction and/or leukoaraiosis were determined according to the findings of MRI. Results A total of 296 patients were enrolled, 163 of them had lacunar infarction and 132 had leukoaraiosis. Univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences in the distributions of age, hypertension, diabetes, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, CWT, and SS between the lacunar infarction group and the non-lacunar infarction group, as well as between the leukoaraiosis group and the non-leukoaraiosis group (all P<0.05). After adjusting for relevant risk factors, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the peak systolic CWT (odds ratio [OR] 3.60, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.48-8.30) and end diastolic CWT (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.21-1.25) were the independent risk factors for lacunar infarction, while the peak systolic SS (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.75-0.95) and end diastolic SS (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.84-0.98) were the independent protective factors for lacunar infarction; the peak systolic CWT (OR 4.67, 95% CI 2.05-10.52) and end diastolic CWT (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.22-1.47) were the independent risk factors for leukoariosis, while the peak systolic SS (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.75-0.94) and end diastolic SS (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.85-0.98) were the independent protective factors for leukoaraiosis. Conclusions The common carotid artery mechanical stress was associated with the occurrence of SVD. Key words: Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases; Stroke, Lacunar; Leukoencephalopathies; Stress, Mechanical; Carotid Arteries; Risk Factors