Publicaciones científicas

Association of Intima-Media Thickness Measured at the Common Carotid Artery With Incident Carotid Plaque: Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis of 20 Prospective Studies

20-jun-2023 | Revista: Journal of the American Heart Association

Lena Tschiderer  1 , Lisa Seekircher  1 , Raffaele Izzo  2 , Costantino Mancusi  2 , Maria V Manzi  2 , Damiano Baldassarre  3   4 , Mauro Amato  4 , Elena Tremoli  5 , Fabrizio Veglia  5 , Tomi-Pekka Tuomainen  6 , Jussi Kauhanen  6 , Ari Voutilainen  6 , Bernhard Iglseder  7   8 , Lars Lind  9 , Tatjana Rundek  10 , Moise Desvarieux  11   12 , Akihiko Kato  13 , Eric de Groot  14   15 , Gülay Aşçi  16 , Ercan Ok  16 , Stefan Agewall  17   18 , Joline W J Beulens  19 , Christopher D Byrne  20   21 , Philip C Calder  20   21 , Hertzel C Gerstein  22   23 , Paolo Gresele  24 , Gerhard Klingenschmid  25 , Michiaki Nagai  26 , Michael H Olsen  27 , Grace Parraga  28 , Maya S Safarova  29 , Naveed Sattar  30 , Michael Skilton  31 , Coen D A Stehouwer  32 , Heiko Uthoff  33 , Michiel A van Agtmael  34 , Amber A van der Heijden  35 , Dorota A Zozulińska-Ziółkiewicz  36 , Hyun-Woong Park  37 , Moo-Sik Lee  38   39 , Jang-Ho Bae  40   41 , Oscar Beloqui  42 , Manuel F Landecho  42 , Matthieu Plichart  43   44 , Pierre Ducimetiere  45 , Jean Philippe Empana  43 , Lena Bokemark  46 , Göran Bergström  47   48 , Caroline Schmidt  46 , Samuela Castelnuovo  49 , Laura Calabresi  50 , Giuseppe D Norata  50   51 , Liliana Grigore  52 , Alberico Catapano  50   52 , Dong Zhao  53 , Miao Wang  53 , Jing Liu  53 , M Arfan Ikram  54 , Maryam Kavousi  54 , Michiel L Bots  55 , Michael J Sweeting  56   57 , Matthias W Lorenz  58   59 , Peter Willeit  1   57 ; Proof‐ATHERO Study Group


Background
The association between common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT) and incident carotid plaque has not been characterized fully. We therefore aimed to precisely quantify the relationship between CCA-IMT and carotid plaque development.

Methods and Results
We undertook an individual participant data meta-analysis of 20 prospective studies from the Proof-ATHERO (Prospective Studies of Atherosclerosis) consortium that recorded baseline CCA-IMT and incident carotid plaque involving 21 494 individuals without a history of cardiovascular disease and without preexisting carotid plaque at baseline. Mean baseline age was 56 years (SD, 9 years), 55% were women, and mean baseline CCA-IMT was 0.71 mm (SD, 0.17 mm).

Over a median follow-up of 5.9 years (5th-95th percentile, 1.9-19.0 years), 8278 individuals developed first-ever carotid plaque. We combined study-specific odds ratios (ORs) for incident carotid plaque using random-effects meta-analysis. Baseline CCA-IMT was approximately log-linearly associated with the odds of developing carotid plaque.

The age-, sex-, and trial arm-adjusted OR for carotid plaque per SD higher baseline CCA-IMT was 1.40 (95% CI, 1.31-1.50; I2=63.9%). The corresponding OR that was further adjusted for ethnicity, smoking, diabetes, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and lipid-lowering and antihypertensive medication was 1.34 (95% CI, 1.24-1.45; I2=59.4%; 14 studies; 16 297 participants; 6381 incident plaques).

We observed no significant effect modification across clinically relevant subgroups. Sensitivity analysis restricted to studies defining plaque as focal thickening yielded a comparable OR (1.38 [95% CI, 1.29-1.47]; I2=57.1%; 14 studies; 17 352 participants; 6991 incident plaques).

Conclusions
Our large-scale individual participant data meta-analysis demonstrated that CCA-IMT is associated with the long-term risk of developing first-ever carotid plaque, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.

CITA DEL ARTÍCULO  J Am Heart Assoc. 2023 Jun 20;12(12):e027657. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.122.027657. Epub 2023 Jun 10.