Risk for transient ischemic attacks is mainly determined by intima-media thickness and carotid plaque echogenicity

Uptake of F-18 FDG and ultrasound analysis of carotid plaque

“…13 In this study, no significant difference was found between calcified carotid plaque and no carotid plaque in terms of F-18 FDG uptake, which may suggest that the morphologic and inflammatory status of carotid plaque seems to be more important than the presence or absence of carotid plaque per se in terms of preventing stroke. In this study, enrolled patients did not have any history of overt symptomatic stroke and carotid artery disease.…”

“…Its echolucent appearance suggests that plaque has a large lipid component and little calcification and, therefore, it is prone to rupture. 13 In this study, we did not identify the clinical implications of echolucent carotid plaque with respect to stroke. However, we found that echolucent plaque has greater F-18 FDG uptake than calcified or no plaque, which seems to imply a high inflammatory state.…”

“…12 More importantly, in low-to-moderate grade lesions, plaque echolucency affords incremental predictive value to IMT in predicting the odds of a clinical event. 13 However, no direct evidence has been presented that these echolucent plaques on carotid US show increased uptake in F-18 FDG carotid PET/CT images in asymptomatic patients. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the relation between the echolucent plaque on carotid ultrasound and F-18 FDG carotid PET/CT.…”

Endothelial function affects early carotid atherosclerosis progression in hypertensive postmenopausal women

“…In this specific population our group demonstrated that endothelial dysfunction is linked to a high risk of cardio-vascular and cerebrovascular events [5,16]. Such events are known to be associated with progression of carotid arterial disease [17][18][19].…”

Comparison of Degree of Stenosis and Plaque Volume for the Assessment of Carotid Atherosclerosis Using 2-D Ultrasound

“…Patients with first transient ischemic attack showed more frequently echolucent lesions compared with those of propensity-matched asymptomatic control patients (Kalogeropoulos et al 2007;Yamagami et al 2008). Thus, the morphologic aspect even subjectively evaluated may also contribute to identify the plaques with high risk of stroke (Rothwell et al 2000;Vicenzini et al 2008).…”