The relationship between carotid intima-media thickness and crononary heart disease

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the relationship between carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and coronary heart disease (CHD) . Methods: The carotid IMT was measured by B ultrasound, then all the patients were divided into CHD group (158 cases) and the control group (without CHD, 90 cases) . And 158 patients with CHD were divided into three subgroups according to the results of coronary angiography: 48 patients with single vessel disease, 44 patients with double vessel disease and 66 patients with three vessel disease. The differences of IMT and Gensini score of carotid artery lesions between groups were compared, and the relationship between IMT of carotid artery and the number of lesion branches of coronary artery and Gensini score of coronary artery lesions was analyzed. Multivariate linear regression was used to analyze the risk factors of CHD. Results: The IMT of carotid artery[ (1.13±0.35) mm vs. (0.93±0.29) mm] and Gensini score of coronary artery lesion[ (20.43±1.32) vs. (0.39±0.04) score] in CHD group were higher than those in control group, and the difference was statistically significant (t=11.09, 9.578, P<0.01) . The IMT of carotid artery and Gensini scores of coronary artery lesion in multi-vessel lesion group (double vessel lesion group and three vessel lesion group) were higher than those in single vessel lesion group, and the Gensini score of three vessel lesion group were higher than that of double vessel lesion group (P<0.01) . There is a significant positive correlation between carotid artery IMT and the number of coronary stenosis and the degree of coronary stenosis (r=0.31, 0.46, P<0.01) . Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that carotid IMT thickening (OR=3.18) , high uric acid level (OR=4.08) and smoking history (OR=2.93) were independent risk factors for CHD. Conclusions: Carotid IMT is closely related to the severity of CHD and coronary artery lesion. It is of clinical significance to detect carotid IMT early in predicting the severity of CHD and coronary artery lesion. Key words: Carotid intima-media thickness; Coronary heart disease; Ultrasound technique