ICCC-CTA to Evaluate Cerebrovascular and Cardiovascular Atherosclerosis

The following is a summary of “One-step integrated coronary–carotid–cerebral computed tomography angiography to evaluate cardiovascular and cerebrovascular atherosclerosis,” published in the July 2023 issue of Cardiology by Liu et al.

Researchers aimed to analyze the link between cardiovascular and cerebrovascular atherosclerosis with a one-step integrated coronary-carotid-cerebral computed tomography angiography (ICCC-CTA) technique, identify plaque risk factors, and offer early-stage treatment to patients to mitigate vascular events.

The retrospective study enrolled 300 asymptomatic patients who underwent ICCC-CTA and had cardiovascular risk to assess the link between coronary and carotid-cerebrovascular atherosclerosis. The multivariate analysis evaluated primary cardiovascular risk factors for different cardiovascular/cerebrovascular disease plaque types.

The study showed 189 (63%) patients had calcified and mixed plaques in both carotid-cerebral and coronary arteries, which significantly correlated (χ² = 20.71, P = 0.001; χ² = 8.96, P = 0.003, respectively). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated the risk factors in the coronary artery, non-calcified plaque group, i.e., abnormal blood glucose [OR = 1.44, 95% CI 0.12–0.62, P = 0.01] and abnormal total cholesterol [OR = 1.28, 95% CI 0.07–0.46, P = 0.01]. However, the risk factors in all the models in the coronary artery calcified plaque group are abnormal blood glucose [OR = 1.43, 95% CI 0.11–0.61, P = 0.01] and abnormal systolic blood pressure [OR = 1.02, 95% CI 0.01–0.04, P = 0.02]. For the non-calcified plaque carotid–cerebral artery group, abnormal blood glucose level [OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 0.12–0.62, P = 0.01] was only a risk factor.

The study suggested that the one-step cerebral-carotid-cardiac CTA technique confirmed the link between elevated blood glucose and total cholesterol levels with coronary and carotid-cerebrovascular plaques, offered insights for developing low-radiation dose one-step ICCC-CTA for plaque screening in the general population with cardiovascular risk factors.

 Source: bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12872-023-03343-3