title: Ultrasound markers that describe plaques are more sensitive than mean intima-media thickness in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia.
abstract: A widely adopted ultrasound surrogate marker for predicting cardiovascular risk is mean intima-medial thickness (mean-IMT). There are, however, certain limitations to this methodology. We compared the severity of carotid atherosclerosis in adult patients with high cardiovascular risk (patients with familial hypercholesterolemia [FH] and without previous statin treatment) and in their adult FH-free first-degree relatives using not only mean-IMT, but also maximum-IMT, plaque number, plaque score and percent area stenosis. Mean-IMT has not differed in both groups (0.64 ± 0.18 mm vs. 0.58 ± 0.13 mm in the control group, p = 0.349). Maximum-IMT (0.99 ± 0.35 vs. 0.76 ± 0.19, p = 0.0057), plaque number (3 ± 3 vs. 1 ± 2, p = 0.0009), plaque score (5.14 ± 4.97 mm vs. 1.58 ± 3.09 mm, p = 0.0009) and percent area stenosis (38% ± 22% vs. 12% ± 20%, p = 0.0004) were significantly higher for FH patients than for their relatives. We have demonstrated that plaque number, plaque score and percent area stenosis markers were more sensitive than mean-IMT for cardiovascular risk estimation in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Age-Related Problems of Cardiovascular Diseases, Russian Cardiology Research Center, Moscow, Russia. alersh@mail.ru
authors.forename: Alexandra I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Ershova
authors.forename: Tatyana V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Balakhonova
authors.forename: Alexey N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Meshkov
authors.forename: Tatyana A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Rozhkova
authors.forename: Sergey A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Boytsov
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; D016893:Carotid Stenosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006938:Hyperlipoproteinemia Type II / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017539:Tunica Intima / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers