Common Carotid Artery Intima‐Media Thickness Determinants in a Population Study

Common carotid artery (CCA) intima‐media thickness (IMT) is considered an atherosclerosis risk marker. Thickening of the intima‐media complex is accelerated by vascular risk factors, in particular, by age and elevated blood pressure. Nonetheless, it also reflects intimal hyperplasia and intimal fibrocellular hypertrophy provoked by nonatherosclerotic mechanisms such as tensile wall stress. The aims of our study were to investigate the relationship between CCA IMT and the presence of vascular risk factors and to correlate CCA IMT with the degree of distal internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis and the proximal CCA resistive index (RI), representative of wall stress.

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