Carotid intima-media thickness by B-mode ultrasound as surrogate of coronary atherosclerosis: correlation with quantitative coronary angiography and coronary intravascular ultrasound findings

“

Although well supported by postmortem studies, the reliability of carotid atherosclerosis as surrogate marker of coronary atherosclerosis has been put in doubt by in vivo studies showing a poor correlation between carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) detected by external carotid ultrasound (ECU) and coronary stenosis assessed by quantitative coronary angiography (QCA). In this study, we have demonstrated that this lower correlation is due to methodological problems (while B-mode ultrasound measures are focused on the arterial wall, angiography provides information on arterial lumen diameter). In fact, an in vivo correlation between the two arteries similar to those of autopsy studies can be obtained by using homogeneous variables such as carotid and coronary IMT, detected by ECU and coronary intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), respectively. This supports the concept that carotid IMT is a good surrogate marker of coronary atherosclerosis.

”