Influence of cardiovascular risk factors on longitudinal motion of the common carotid artery wall.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Carotid artery longitudinal wall motion (CALM) is a new biomarker, which can be measured together with carotid intima-media thickness and distensibility measurements in the same session. Our objective was to study the relationship between these indicators of vascular health and cardiovascular risk factors in a large and well-characterized study population.

METHODS

The study population consisted of 465 subjects aged 30-45 years. Successful measurements were performed in 287 participants.

RESULTS

The peak-to-peak and retrograde amplitudes of the longitudinal motion were inversely correlated with systolic blood pressure (SBP; r = -0.152, p<0.05 and r = -0.189, p<0.01), diastolic blood pressure (DBP; r = -0.170, p<0.01 and r = -0.256, p<0.001) and body mass index (BMI; r = -0.158, p<0.01 and r = -0.291, p<0.001). In addition, retrograde amplitude of longitudinal motion indirectly correlated with total cholesterol and triglycerides (r = -0.163, p<0.01 and r = -0.228, p<0.001, respectively). Amplitude of antegrade longitudinal motion was directly correlated with DBP, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and BMI (r = 0.198-0.274, p<0.001 for all). Antegrade longitudinal motion increased and retrograde longitudinal motion decreased with the increasing number of cardiovascular risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS

The magnitude of correlation coefficients between CALM parameters and risk factors was comparable with those for carotid intima-media thickness and distensibility. However, the correlation profile for various risk factors was different and CALM gives additional information regarding arteriosclerosis and risk factors.