Relationship between carotid atherosclerosis score and its high-resolution MRI characteristics / 中华老年心脑血管病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the relationship of carotid atherosclerosis score (CAS) with carotid atherosclerotic disease and its clinical indexes in ischemic stroke patients.Methods Ninety-six patients with ischemic stroke (＜2 weeks) or transient ischemic attack underwent high-resolution MRI of bilateral carotid arteries to measure their carotid atherosclerotic luminal stenosis,maximal wall thickness (MaxWT) and plaque involvement size.The carotid plaque images with unstable components of lipid-rich core (LRC) were analyzed with CASCAD software.The CAS value was calculated and divided into low risk group and high risk group.The relationship between CAS and its clinical indexes was analyzed.Results LRC was detected in plaques of 148 carotid arteries of the 96 patients with a CAS value of 21.6％±17.5％.The CAS value was related with the carotid luminal stenosis,MaxWT and plaque involvement size (r =0.610,r=0.569,r =0.527,P＜ 0.001).A significant difference was found in carotid luminal stenosis,MaxWT and plaque involvement size with a different CAS value (P＜0.01).The CAS value was related with LDL and HDL/TC ratio (r=0.469,P＜0.01;r=-0.269,P=0.035).The SBP,DBP and LDL level were higher in high risk group than in low risk group (P＜0.05).Conclusion CAS is closely related with carotid atherosclerotic disease and lipid metabolism.The higher the CAS value is,the higher the risk of carotid plaque hemorrhage and fibrous cap rupture is.