TY - JOUR
TI - Female gender is independently associated with increased carotid
temperatures in patients with coronary artery disease
AU - Benetos, Georgios
AU - Toutouzas, Konstantinos
AU - Matsoukis, Ioannis and
AU - Drakopoulou, Maria
AU - Mitropoulou, Fotini
AU - Koutagiar, Iosif and
AU - Nikolaou, Charalampia
AU - Stathogiannis, Konstantinos
AU - Siores, Elias
AU - and Tousoulis, Dimitris
JO - International Journal of Cardiology
PY - 2016
VL - 219
TODO - null
SP - 130-135
PB - Elsevier Ireland Ltd
SN - 0167-5273
TODO - 10.1016/j.ijcard.2016.06.006
TODO - Carotid artery; Gender differences; Inflammation; Microwave radiometry
TODO - Background: Limited are the data regarding the sex differences in
functional carotid artery characteristics. Microwave Radiometry (MWR) is
a new noninvasive method, which measures in vivo instantly the internal
temperatures of tissues, reflecting inflammation. The aim of the present
study was to investigate whether in patients with coronary artery
disease (CAD), gender related differences apply in carotid plaque
functional characteristics, as assessed by MWR.
Methods: Consecutive patients with significant CAD were included in the
study. All patients underwent evaluation of both carotid arteries by 1)
ultrasound and 2) MWR. During ultrasound common carotid IMT and plaque
thickness were assessed according to Mannheim consensus. During MWR
measurements, temperature difference (Delta T) was assigned as maximal
temperature along the carotid artery minus minimum. Delta T >= 0.90
degrees C was assigned as high Delta T.
Results: In total 364 patients with significant CAD were included in the
study. Of these 54 were female and 310 were male. Max plaque thickness
and ccIMT were similar between males and females (2.38 +/- 1.16 vs. 2.46
+/- 1.12 mm, p = 0.63 and 0.944 +/- 0.172 vs. 0.942 +/- 0.169 mm, p =
0.96). Carotid arteries of females showed higher Delta T values (1.16
+/- 0.48 vs 0.87 +/- 0.45 degrees C, p < 0.001). Interestingly, females
had more commonly high Delta T values bilaterally (35.2% vs 15.5%, p =
0.001). In multivariate analysis, female sex was independently
associated with bilateral high Delta T, when adjusted to potential
covariates (OR = 2.78, 95% CI = 1.42-5.45, p = 0.003).
Conclusions: In patients with CAD, sex specific differences apply in
functional but not in structural carotid artery characteristics. Whether
this discrepancy has prognostic significance, remains to be clarified in
future studies. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
ER -