Quantitative measurement of carotid intima-media roughness—effect of age and manifest coronary artery disease

Beyond intima-media-thickness: Analysis of the carotid intima-media-roughness in a paediatric population

“…So, cIMR seems not to be prone to physiological changes during vascular aging as cIMT [1,39e41]. This was also shown in the study comparing adult patients with and without coronary artery disease and young healthy subjects [6]. Interestingly, we could observe some correlations between known cardiovascular risk factors and cIMR within our study group.…”

“…Schmidt-Trucks€ ass et al report about an increased cIMR in adult patients with manifest coronary artery disease compared to agematched controls which is not attributable to age-related changes like cIMT [6]. So, structural analysis of the carotid wall seems to add information to cIMT measurement and may be a stronger predictor of cardiovascular disease.…”

“…The algorithm adopted by this software was described and validated extensively elsewhere [6,7,22]. In brief, the software performs analysis of a 10 mm segment of the common carotid artery proximal to the carotid bulb.…”

“…After that, a rotation of the regression line to horizontal is performed. The cIMR finally consists of the arithmetic mean of the deviation area from the regression line according to the ISO-definition for quantification of industrial surface roughness (International Organization for Standardisation, Geneva, Switzerland) [6]. (Fig 1).…”

How to monitor vascular aging with an ultrasound

“…Since increased carotid thickening and stiffness with endothelial dysfunction are a part of normal aging process as well as an increase in systolic blood and pulse pressure values and are referred to as vascular remodeling [13]. Since some of the changes attributed to normal aging have been identified in hypertensive individuals or those with diabetes mellitus or atherosclerosis at an earlier age, it is believed that they can be recognized as "unsuccessful" aging and subclinical vascular disease [14][15][16]. It is speculated that exposure to cardiovascular risk factors during childhood and adolescence may be associated with the development of atherosclerosis later in life [17].…”