Abstract
The factors that influence the atherosclerotic disease process in high-risk individuals remain poorly understood. Here, we used a combination of vascular imaging, risk factor assessment, and biomarkers to identify factors associated with 3-year change in carotid disease severity in a cohort of high-risk subjects treated with preventive therapy (n = 865). The results show that changes in intima-media thickness (IMT) are most pronounced in the carotid bulb. Progression of bulb IMT demonstrates independent associations with baseline bulb IMT, the plaque gray scale median (GSM), and the plasma level of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) (standardized β-coefficients and 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.14 [-0.06 to -0.02] p = 0.001, 0.15 [0.02-0.07] p = 0.001, and 0.20 [0.03-0.07] p < 0.001, respectively). Plasma PDGF correlates with the plaque GSM (0.23 [0.15-0.29] p < 0.001). These observations provide insight into the atherosclerotic process in high-risk subjects by showing that progression primarily occurs in fibrotic plaques and is associated with increased levels of PDGF.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 100676 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Cell Reports Medicine |
Volume | 3 |
Issue number | 7 |
Early online date | 19 Jul 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 19 Jul 2022 |
Keywords
- Atherosclerosis/complications
- Biomarkers
- Carotid Artery Diseases/diagnostic imaging
- Carotid Intima-Media Thickness
- Humans
- Plaque, Atherosclerotic/diagnostic imaging
- Risk Factors
- Tomography, X-Ray Computed
- atherosclerosis
- risk factors
- biomarkers
- carotid ultrasound
- intima-media thickness
- type 2 diabetes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology