title: Association between carotid artery plaque type and cerebral microbleeds.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  CMBs have become increasingly recognized with the widespread use of MR imaging techniques that are sensitive to iron deposits. The purpose of this study was to correlate the presence of CMBs and carotid plaque characteristics.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy consecutive patients (47 men; 23 women; mean age, 65 years) were prospectively analyzed. Carotid arteries were studied using a 16-detector row CT scanner, whereas the brain was explored with an MR imaging 1.5T system. CMBs were studied using a T2*-weighted GRE sequence. CMBs were classified by an ordinal scale and carotid plaques were characterized based on their composition as fatty, mixed, or calcified. Patients were classified as symptomatic and asymptomatic. Chi-square and multiple logistic regression analyses, as well as ROCs, were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of CMBs was 30%. A statistically significant difference in CMB prevalence was observed between symptomatic (46%) and asymptomatic (19%) patients (P value = .0021; OR = 3.7). Correlation analysis demonstrated an association between the number of CMBs and the symptoms (P = .0001). A statistically significant association was observed between the presence of fatty plaque and CMBs (P = .0019).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study suggest an association between the presence of carotid artery fatty plaque, symptoms, and CMBs. Moreover, we found that the presence (and entity) of CMBs may represent an indicator of cerebrovascular symptom severity.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Radiology, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria, di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy. lucasaba@tiscali.it
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Saba
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Montisci
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Raz
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sanfilippo
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Suri
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piga
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic