Common carotid artery intimal-medial thickness and risk of coronary heart disease

Several lines of evidence point to strong associations between extracranial carotid intimal-medial thickness (IMT) and risk of coronary heart disease. These include interassociations of cerebrovascular and coronary symptoms, interassociations of atherosclerosis of the two vascular beds and associations of indices of asymptomatic extracranial carotid atherosclerosis and stenosis with incident coronary events. However, although IMT, atherosclerosis and stenosis of the extracranial carotid arteries are associated with incident coronary events, these structural indices of disease do not precisely identify individuals at risk. Investigation of the composition of extracranial carotid plaques and of arterial function may provide new dimensions to identify arterial disease that may complement the currently used measures of arterial structure and help to identify individuals at risk more easily.