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Carotid Artery Distensibility
Author(s) -
Godia Elisa Cuadrado,
Madhok Rishi,
Pittman John,
Trocio Samuel,
Ramas Romel,
Cabral Digna,
Sacco Ralph L.,
Rundek Tatjana
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of ultrasound in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1550-9613
pISSN - 0278-4297
DOI - 10.7863/jum.2007.26.9.1157
Subject(s) - medicine , intraclass correlation , reproducibility , carotid arteries , common carotid artery , nuclear medicine , cardiology , standard deviation , mathematics , statistics
Objectives Carotid distensibility (CD) is a measure of carotid artery elasticity that has been introduced as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Information regarding reproducibility of sonographic CD measures is limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate the inter‐reader reliability of sonographic measurements of common carotid artery (CCA) diameters and derived metrics of CD. Methods Two independent readers (R1 and R2) measured the systolic diameter (SD) and diastolic diameter (DD) for the right CCA from the B/M‐mode sonographic registrations among 118 subjects. The derived CD metrics (strain, elastic modulus [E], stiffness [β], and CD) were calculated. The inter‐reader type 3 intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC3,1) for carotid diameters were calculated. Results The mean SDs ± standard deviation were 7.15 ± 1.43 mm for R1 and 7.24 ± 1.43 mm for R2. The mean DDs were 6.71 ± 1.36 mm for R1 and 6.68 ± 1.41 mm for R2. The mean differences of SD and DD between R1 and R2 were 0.08 ± 0.40 mm (paired t test, P = .04) and 0.03 ± 0.43 mm (paired t test, P = .46), respectively. Inter‐reader type 3 intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.96 for SD and 0.95 for DD. We observed a significant association of demographics with carotid diameters but not with derived CD metrics or risk factors. Conclusions Our results suggest good reproducibility of CCA diameters measured with B/M‐mode sonography. However, very small changes in linear measurements of carotid diameters can have big effects on estimates of arterial mechanical properties such as strain and Young's modulus. The standard boundary identification methods may not be precise and reproducible enough for use in a clinical setting.