[Assessments of carotid adventitial remodeling in metabolic syndrome patients using high-frequency ultrasound].

Objective To evaluate the changes of carotid adventitial thickness (AT) and intima media thickness (IMT) and their relationship in metabolic syndrome (MS) patients using high-frequency ultrasound. Methods The values of mean AT and mean IMT were measured and calculated for 161 MS patients and compared them with 94 age and gender-matched controls as determined by high-frequency ultrasound between 2009-2011. And 161 patients were divided further into 2 groups of MS with plaque (MS-P, n=70) and MS without plaque (MS-NP, n=91). Results MS-P and MS-NP patients had significantly higher values of mean IMT and carotid artery wall thickness than controls and MS-P patients had significantly higher values of mean AT than controls ((0.77±0.13) mm vs (0.66±0.11) mm, P<0.01). Moreover, MS-P patients had significantly higher values of mean IMT ((0.98±0.20) mm vs (0.76±0.10) mm, P<0.01), mean AT ((0.77±0.13) vs (0.69±0.13) mm, P<0.01) and carotid artery wall thickness ((1.61±0.16) mm vs (1.42±0.09) mm, P=0.002) than MS-NP patients. And mean AT was positively correlated with mean IMT in controls, MS-P and MS-NP patients (r=0.603, P<0.01, r=0.325, P=0.005 and r=0.344, P=0.004 separately). Conclusion For IMT and AT in MS patients with and without plaques, adventitia participates in vascular remodeling and may be distinguished by high-frequency ultrasound. Key words: Metabolic syndrome X; Atherosclerosis; Adventitial thickness; IMT