Common carotid artery remodeling studied by sonomorphological criteria.
OBJECTIVE
Only a few attempts have been made to establish the impact of critical intima-media thickness (IMT) on narrowing of the lumen of the common carotid artery (CCA). In the present study, sonomorphological criteria have been used to assess how intima-media thickening in the CCA may influence the artery geometry.


METHODS
High-resolution ultrasonography was employed in 233 patients (466 arteries) to quantify the selected parameters of CCA biometry: IMT, arterial lumen diameter (LD), interadventitial diameter (IAD), and outer artery diameter (OAD).


RESULTS
With an increase of CCA IMT up to the critical point of 1.2 mm, the LD showed parallel compensatory increases. Above the inflection point of 1.3 mm, the lumen became progressively narrower proportionally to the increasing IMT.


CONCLUSIONS
There are limits to the compensatory enlargement of the CCA lumen. Above the inflection point of CCA IMT of 1.3 mm, the artery lumen becomes progressively narrower with increasing IMT.
Kazmierski
Radoslaw
R
Department of Neurology, University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland. r.kazmierski@am.poznan.pl
Watala
Cezary
C
Lukasik
Maria
M
Kozubski
Wojciech
W
D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D017536:Carotid Artery, Common / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020521:Stroke / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D017539:Tunica Intima / Q000473:pathology; D017540:Tunica Media / Q000473:pathology; D014463:Ultrasonography