<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><bold>Background:</bold> Atherosclerosis has a systemic impact, producing gradual stenoses of the main vessels, and many imaging techniques have been developed in order to detect and quantify the atherosclerotic lesions. Peripheral artery disease has been shown to be associated with the presence of coronary heart disease, at the same time with carotid artery involvement. The utility of the carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) in predicting cardiovascular events caused by atherosclerosis, led to the idea that assessing the femoral artery IMT could have a similar impact.<bold>Study aim:</bold> We sought to determine the correlations between the femoral IMT, the degree of left ventricular systolic dysfunction and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with established diagnosis of ischemic heart disease.<bold>Material and methods:</bold> We prospectively included 27 patients with diagnosed ischemic heart disease. The ankle-brachial index (ABI) was assessed for the anterior and posterior tibial arteries. The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was determined by echocardiography. The femoral IMT was measured by peripheral vascular ultrasound, at the common femoral artery, 1 cm proximally from the bifurcation. The patients were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 – patients with IMT&lt;0.9mm, and Group 2: patients with IMT >0.9 mm.<bold>Results:</bold> The mean age of the study population was 65.52 ± 11.44 years, and 77.77% were males. The mean glycemia levels were 99.89 ± 30.34 mg/dl, total cholesterol: 176.81 ± 43.09 mg/dl and the mean triglyceride level 140 ± 65.12mg/dl. The mean LEVF was 49.98% ± 12.73%, and femoral IMT 0.75 mm ± 0.25 mm. IMT significantly correlated with cholesterol levels (R = 0.383, p = 0.048), anterior and posterior tibial artery pressures (R = 0.450, p = 0.018, R = 0.418, p = 0.029 respectively) and ABI (R = 0.623, p = 0.005). There was no significant correlation between the LVEF and the IMT (R = −0.143, p = 0.475). There was a significant difference between the 2 groups regarding the minimum anterior tibial artery pressure (95.57 mmHg vs. 63.5 mmHg, p = 0.0011) and the minimum ABI (0.85 vs. 0.5, p = 0.015), and the femoral IMT (p = 0.0001). For patients with a femoral IMT >0.9 mm, a significant correlation was found between ABI and femoral IMT (R = −0.710, p &lt;0.0001).<bold>Conclusion:</bold> The femoral intima-media thickness, assessed with peripheral vascular ultrasound, could be a new marker in evaluating the global cardiovascular risk in patients with ischemic heart disease. Femoral IMT could become a new marker for systemic atherosclerosis.</abstract>

Background: Atherosclerosis has a systemic impact, producing gradual stenoses of the main vessels, and many imaging techniques have been developed in order to detect and quantify the atherosclerotic lesions. Peripheral artery disease has been shown to be associated with the presence of coronary heart disease, at the same time with carotid artery involvement. The utility of the carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) in predicting cardiovascular events caused by atherosclerosis, led to the idea that assessing the femoral artery IMT could have a similar impact.Study aim: We sought to determine the correlations between the femoral IMT, the degree of left ventricular systolic dysfunction and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with established diagnosis of ischemic heart disease.Material and methods: We prospectively included 27 patients with diagnosed ischemic heart disease. The ankle-brachial index (ABI) was assessed for the anterior and posterior tibial arteries. The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was determined by echocardiography. The femoral IMT was measured by peripheral vascular ultrasound, at the common femoral artery, 1 cm proximally from the bifurcation. The patients were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 – patients with IMT<0.9mm, and Group 2: patients with IMT >0.9 mm.Results: The mean age of the study population was 65.52 ± 11.44 years, and 77.77% were males. The mean glycemia levels were 99.89 ± 30.34 mg/dl, total cholesterol: 176.81 ± 43.09 mg/dl and the mean triglyceride level 140 ± 65.12mg/dl. The mean LEVF was 49.98% ± 12.73%, and femoral IMT 0.75 mm ± 0.25 mm. IMT significantly correlated with cholesterol levels (R = 0.383, p = 0.048), anterior and posterior tibial artery pressures (R = 0.450, p = 0.018, R = 0.418, p = 0.029 respectively) and ABI (R = 0.623, p = 0.005). There was no significant correlation between the LVEF and the IMT (R = −0.143, p = 0.475). There was a significant difference between the 2 groups regarding the minimum anterior tibial artery pressure (95.57 mmHg vs. 63.5 mmHg, p = 0.0011) and the minimum ABI (0.85 vs. 0.5, p = 0.015), and the femoral IMT (p = 0.0001). For patients with a femoral IMT >0.9 mm, a significant correlation was found between ABI and femoral IMT (R = −0.710, p <0.0001).Conclusion: The femoral intima-media thickness, assessed with peripheral vascular ultrasound, could be a new marker in evaluating the global cardiovascular risk in patients with ischemic heart disease. Femoral IMT could become a new marker for systemic atherosclerosis.

Correlations Between Femoral Intima-media Thickness and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease

Clinic of Cardiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania

Center of Advanced Research in Multimodality Cardiac Imaging, Cardio Med Medical Center, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania

Journal of Interdisciplinary Medicine

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Background: Atherosclerosis has a systemic impact, producing gradual stenoses of the main vessels, and many imaging techniques have been developed in order to detect and quantify the atherosclerotic lesions. Peripheral artery disease has been shown to be associated with the presence of coronary heart disease, at the same time with carotid artery involvement. The utility of the carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) in predicting cardiovascular events caused by atherosclerosis, led to the idea that assessing the femoral artery IMT could have a similar impact.Study aim: We sought to determine the correlations between the femoral IMT, the degree of left ventricular systolic dysfunction and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with established diagnosis of ischemic heart disease.Material and methods: We prospectively included 27 patients with diagnosed ischemic heart disease. The ankle-brachial index (ABI) was assessed for the anterior and posterior tibial arteries. The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was determined by echocardiography. The femoral IMT was measured by peripheral vascular ultrasound, at the common femoral artery, 1 cm proximally from the bifurcation. The patients were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 – patients with IMT0.9 mm.Results: The mean age of the study population was 65.52 ± 11.44 years, and 77.77% were males. The mean glycemia levels were 99.89 ± 30.34 mg/dl, total cholesterol: 176.81 ± 43.09 mg/dl and the mean triglyceride level 140 ± 65.12mg/dl. The mean LEVF was 49.98% ± 12.73%, and femoral IMT 0.75 mm ± 0.25 mm. IMT significantly correlated with cholesterol levels (R = 0.383, p = 0.048), anterior and posterior tibial artery pressures (R = 0.450, p = 0.018, R = 0.418, p = 0.029 respectively) and ABI (R = 0.623, p = 0.005). There was no significant correlation between the LVEF and the IMT (R = −0.143, p = 0.475). There was a significant difference between the 2 groups regarding the minimum anterior tibial artery pressure (95.57 mmHg vs. 63.5 mmHg, p = 0.0011) and the minimum ABI (0.85 vs. 0.5, p = 0.015), and the femoral IMT (p = 0.0001). For patients with a femoral IMT >0.9 mm, a significant correlation was found between ABI and femoral IMT (R = −0.710, p <0.0001).Conclusion: The femoral intima-media thickness, assessed with peripheral vascular ultrasound, could be a new marker in evaluating the global cardiovascular risk in patients with ischemic heart disease. Femoral IMT could become a new marker for systemic atherosclerosis.

Background: Atherosclerosis has a systemic impact, producing gradual stenoses of the main vessels, and many imaging techniques have been developed in order to...

Correlations Between Femoral Intima-media Thickness and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease

Published Online: Jul 06, 2016

Page range: 32 - 36

Received: Apr 04, 2016

Accepted: May 19, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jim-2016-0007

Keywords
atheroclerosis, femoral artery intima-media thickness, cardiovascular events

© 2016 Zsuzsanna Jeremiás et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Correlations Between Femoral Intima-media Thickness and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease

Published Online: Jul 06, 2016

Page range: 32 - 36

Received: Apr 04, 2016

Accepted: May 19, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jim-2016-0007

Keywordsatheroclerosis, femoral artery intima-media thickness, cardiovascular events

© 2016 Zsuzsanna Jeremiás et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
atheroclerosis, femoral artery intima-media thickness, cardiovascular events