title: Quality reporting of carotid intima-media thickness methodology; Current state of the science in the field of spinal cord injury.
abstract: Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) may be used increasingly as a cardiovascular disease (CVD) screening tool in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) as other routine invasive diagnostic tests are often unfeasible. However, variation in cIMT acquisition and analysis methods is an issue in the current published literature. The growth of the field is dependent on cIMT quality acquisition and analysis to ensure accurate reporting of CVD risk. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of the reported methodology used to collect cIMT values in SCI.
  
  
  
  Data from 12 studies, which measured cIMT in individuals with SCI, were identified from the Medline, Embase and CINAHL databases. The quality of the reported methodologies was scored based on adherence to cIMT methodological guidelines abstracted from two consensus papers.
  
  
  
  Five studies were scored as 'moderate quality' in methodological reporting, having specified 9 to 11 of 15 quality reporting criterion. The remaining seven studies were scored as 'low quality', having reported less than 9 of 15 quality reporting criterion. No study had methodological reporting that was scored as 'high quality'. The overall reporting of quality methodology was poor in the published SCI literature.
  
  
  
  A greater adherence to current methodological guidelines is needed to advance the field of cIMT in SCI. Further research is necessary to refine cIMT acquisition and analysis guidelines to aid authors designing research and journals in screening manuscripts for publication.
authors.affiliation: a Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-UHN , Brain and Spinal Cord Rehabilitation Program , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.|b Department of Kinesiology , University of Waterloo , Waterloo , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: Jordan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Hoskin
authors.affiliation: a Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-UHN , Brain and Spinal Cord Rehabilitation Program , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: Masae
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyatani
authors.affiliation: a Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-UHN , Brain and Spinal Cord Rehabilitation Program , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.|b Department of Kinesiology , University of Waterloo , Waterloo , Ontario , Canada.|c Department of Medicine , University of Toronto , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: B Catharine
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8234-6803
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Craven
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness / Q000592:standards*; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000150:complications*
keywords: Atherosclerosis; Cardiovascular disease; Carotid intima-media thickness; Paraplegia; Spinal cord injury; Tetraplegia