Intima Media Thickness Variability (IMTV) and its association with cerebrovascular events: A novel marker of carotid atherosclerosis Full Text
Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy,
Clinical Article
Saba L et al. – Data of this preliminary study suggest that Intima Media Thickness Variability may represent a powerful method to assess carotid atherosclerotic disease with a significant association to cerebrovascular events.
Methods- The study was approved by the local IRB.
- Twenty consecutive patients underwent ultrasound analysis of the carotid arteries (mean age 68 years; age range 59–81 years).
- The IMT and IMTV of the 40 carotid vessels was assessed.
- Bland–Altman statistics were employed to measure the inter–observer variability, and ROC analysis was used to assess the association with cerebrovascular events.
- In all cases the ROC area under the curve was higher for IMTV than IMT.
- There was a statistical significant association between IMTV and cerebrovascular events (P=0.018), but no relationship between IMT and events.
- The results for inter–observer variability showed a systematic error between 0.04 mm and 0.08 mm.
- In the Person Rho correlation analysis in no case a statistical association between IMT and symptoms was detected whereas in 2 cases (observer 1 and observer 2), a statistically significant association between IMTV and symptoms was found.
