The evalation of presence and morphology of carotid artery plaques in patients with aortic artery plaques

Purpose: The purpose of our study was to evaluate the frequency and the properties of carotid artery plaques which are risk factors for stroke in patients who have calcified atheromatous plaques at thoracic and abdominal aortic arteries by comparing with the control group.Method: Eightynine patients with calcified atheromatous plaques at thoracic or abdominal aorta and seventynine patients without these plaques were chosen and evaluated for carotid artery palaques, among the patients who were attended to Düzce University Radiology Department for abdominal or thorax CT examinations with various indications between June-December 2009.Results: The length, thickness and number of plaques were increasing as the thoracic and abdominal aorta plaques increase in length especially when the plaque was located concentrically. In carotid arteries eccentrically located plaques were more frequent in patients with shorter plaques in thoracic and abdominal aorta. In most patients with concentrically located plaques in thoracic aorta, carotid plaques were dominantly or uniformly echolucent.It is revealed that the length, thickness and the number of concentric, ulcerated and irregular plaques were increasing, with the increase of age of the patients in both study and control groups. Number of carotid plaques were higher in patients with diabetes mellitus and the number and thickness of the plaques were higher in smokers. Thickness of the plaques were significantly higher in males.Conclusion: In our study it is revealed that carotid plaques which have higher risk for stroke were detected more in the study group.We believe that carotid arteries of the patients with detected thoracic and abdominal calcified atheromatous plaques who were admitted to radiology clinics for abdominal orthorasic CT examinations with various indications should be examined by doppler ultrasonography for the early diagnosis of the future risk of stroke.Key Words: Aorta, , carotid artery, atheromatous plaque, CDUS