Prevalence and Characteristics of Carotid Artery High-Risk Atherosclerotic Plaques in Chinese Patients With Cerebrovascular Symptoms: A Chinese Atherosclerosis Risk Evaluation II Study

Background

Carotid atherosclerotic plaque rupture is an important source of ischemic stroke. However, the prevalence of high‐risk plaque (HRP) defined as plaques with luminal surface disruption, a lipid‐rich necrotic core occupying >40% of the wall, or intraplaque hemorrhage in Chinese population remains unclear. This study uses carotid magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) to investigate HRP prevalence in carotid arteries of Chinese patients with cerebrovascular symptoms.

Methods and Results

Patients with cerebral ischemic symptoms in the anterior circulation within 2 weeks and carotid plaque determined by ultrasound were recruited and underwent CMRI. The HRP features were identified and compared between symptomatic and asymptomatic arteries. Receiver‐operating‐characteristic analysis was used to calculate area‐under‐the‐curve (AUC) of stenosis and maximum wall thickness for discriminating presence of HRP. In 1047 recruited subjects, HRP detected by CMRI was nearly 1.5 times more prevalent than severe stenosis (≥50%) in this cohort (28% versus 19%, P<0.0001). Approximately two thirds of HRPs were found in arteries with <50% stenosis. The prevalence of HRP in symptomatic carotid arteries was significantly higher than that of the contralateral asymptomatic carotid arteries (23.0% versus 16.4%, P=0.001). Maximum wall thickness was found to be a stronger discriminator than stenosis for HRP (AUC: 0.93 versus 0.81, P<0.0001).

Conclusions

There are significantly more high‐risk carotid plaques than carotid arteries with ≥50% stenosis in symptomatic Chinese patients. A substantial number of HRPs were found in arteries with lower grade stenosis and maximum wall thickness was a stronger indicator for HRP than luminal stenosis.

Clinical Trial Registration

URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier: NCT02017756.