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Kang, Kim, Kwon, Hyun, and Bae: The Serum Lipid Level is Associated with Intimal Thickness of the Carotid Artery for Patients with Coronary Atherosclerosis
Original Article
Korean Circulation Journal

Korean Circulation Journal 2007; 37(8): 380-384.

Published online: 31 August 2007

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4070/kcj.2007.37.8.380

The Serum Lipid Level is Associated with Intimal Thickness of the Carotid Artery for Patients with Coronary Atherosclerosis

Mi-Il Kang, MD1, Wuon-Shik Kim, PhD2, Taek-Geun Kwon, MD1, Dae-Woo Hyun, MD1, Jang-Ho Bae, MD1

1Division of Cardiology, Heart Center, College of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Korea.

2Korean Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon, Korea.

Corresponding author (janghobae@yahoo.co.kr)

Received 6 March 2007       Revised 17 April 2007       Accepted 28 April 2007

© 2007, The Korean Society of Circulation

Abstract

Background and Objectives

It's not clear whether the serum lipid level is associated with the individual carotid arterial wall thickness for patients suffering with coronary atherosclerosis, although hypercholesterolemia is associated with an increased carotid IMT. We sought to evaluate the association between the serum lipid level and the individual carotid arterial wall thickness (intimal thickness (IT) and medial thickness (MT)) as well as the carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) for patients with coronary atherosclerosis.

Subjects and Methods

The carotid arterial wall thickness was measured using high-resolution B-mode ultrasound in 139 consecutive patients (58±11 years old, 75 males) with coronary atherosclerosis by performing coronary angiography.

Results

Measurement of the individual arterial wall thickness was possible in 126 patients (90.6%) out of all the study subjects. The carotid IMT was correlated with the total cholesterol (r=0.207, p=0.015) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (r=0.237, p=0.006). The carotid IT was correlated with the total cholesterol (r=0.210, p=0.020), triglyceride (r=0.212, p=0.018), and LDL-cholesterol (r=0.246, p=0.006), whereas the MT did not show any significant correlation with the serum lipid level. Multivariate analysis disclosed that the serum LDL cholesterol level was associated with the carotid IMT and IT for the patients with coronary atherosclerosis, but it was not correlated with the MT.

Conclusion

This study suggests that the serum LDL cholesterol level is more closely associated with the carotid IT than the IMT for patients with coronary atherosclerosis, and each carotid arterial wall has a different response to the serum lipid level.

Keywords: Carotid arteries, Dyslipidemia, atherosclerosis

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1
Separate measurements of IT, MT and IMT using a new method devised for this study. IT: intima thickness, MT: media thickness, IMT: intima-media thickness.
kcj-37-380-g001
Table 1
Clinical characteristics of patients
kcj-37-380-i001

*: values are mean±1 standard deviation or number of pateints (%). Other comorbid conditions represent bone fracture, malignancy, or any symptoms requiring coronary angiography. ACS: acute coronary syndrome, LV: left ventricular, HDL: high-density lipoprotein, LDL: low-density lipoprotein, Hs-CRP: high-sensitivity C-reactive protein

Table 2
Comparison of pearson correlation coefficients between individual carotid wall thickness and serum lipid level
kcj-37-380-i002

IT: intima thickness, MT: media thickness, IMT: intima-media thickness, TG: tryglycerides, HDL-C: high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, LDL-C: low-density lipoprotein cholesterol

Table 3
Independent factors of the individual carotid artery wall thickness*
kcj-37-380-i003

*: all the models included all variables used in univariate analysis as independent variables. Only those variables that remained significant after backward elimination are shown in this table. LDL-C: low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, IT: intima thickness, MT: media thickness, IMT: intima-media thickness

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