Does information on carotid intima-media thickness or arterial stiffness improve the prediction of cardiovascular disease risk beyond established risk factors?
While CIMT indicates cardiovascular risk, more evidence is needed to determine if CIMT or arterial stiffness improves risk stratification beyond established risk factors.
CIMT is a good indicator of cardiovascular risk and provides a graded measure of vascular damage: no clear CIMT level above which the cardiovascular risk appears to increase considerably The evidence for arterial stiffness, assessed as carotid distensibility or aortic pulse wave velocity, as an indicator for risk of cardiovascular disease is restricted to subjects with either hypertension or end-stage renal disease or based on small studies in renal transplant patients and elderly. Evidence to indicate that information on carotid intima-media thickness or arterial stiffness, additional to established cardiovascular risk factors, helps to distinguish subjects into those with a high and those with a low absolute risk of cardiovascular disease is limited, but needed. Also, information on the direct comparison of both arterial stiffness measures in their ability to predict cardiovascular disease is needed.
Bots et al. (Sun,) studied this question.