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A Methodological Approach to Non-invasive Assessments of Vascular Function and Morphology
09:33

A Methodological Approach to Non-invasive Assessments of Vascular Function and Morphology

Published on: February 7, 2015

Multiple risk factor intervention reduces cardiovascular risk in hypertensive patients with echolucent plaques in the

C Schmidt1, B Fagerberg, J Wikstrand

  • 1Wallenberg Laboratory for Cardiovascular research, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg University, Sweden.

Journal of Internal Medicine
|March 26, 2003
PubMed

Insights

Multiple risk factor intervention benefits only patients with echolucent carotid artery plaques. This intervention did not show significant effects on cardiovascular events in patients with echogenic plaques or no plaques.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Vascular Ultrasound
  • Interventional Cardiology

Background:

  • Previous studies indicated multiple risk factor intervention reduces cardiovascular risk in high-risk hypertensive men.
  • This benefit was previously observed only in patients with carotid artery plaques.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine carotid artery plaque characteristics using B-mode ultrasound.
  • To investigate the relationship between plaque characteristics and cardiovascular events in intervention and usual care groups.

Main Methods:

  • High-resolution B-mode ultrasound was employed to categorize plaque echogenicity.
  • Plaques were classified into four subgroups: dominantly echolucent, substantially echolucent, dominantly echogenic, and uniformly echogenic.

Main Results:

  • Patients with echolucent plaques had a significantly lower risk of combined cardiovascular events (death, myocardial infarction, stroke) in the intervention group (25%) compared to the usual care group (53%) (P=0.036).
  • No significant difference in event rates was observed between intervention and usual care groups for patients with echogenic plaques (24% vs. 31%) or no plaques (37% vs. 33%).

Conclusions:

  • The beneficial effect of the multiple risk factor intervention program was specifically observed in patients with echolucent carotid artery plaques.
  • These findings require confirmation through large-scale clinical trials.
Abstract

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