Investigation of the correlation between diabetes and sonographic features of carotid arteries

Objective To investigate the association between carotid atherosclerosis and diabetes by measuring intima-media thickness(IMT) and RI with color Doppler sonography. Methods The objects were divided into two groups: diabetic ( 50 cases ) and nondiabetic (50 cases)without hypertesion, hyperlipemia, cerebral stroke, and so forth. The intima-media thickness and RI were measured in right common carotid. Results Carotid IMT and RI were significantly higher in the diabetic patients than those in the control subjects (p0.05) when the age, sex, body index, systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in two groups had no difference (p0.05). Conclusions These results indicate that the presence of carotid atherosclerosis implies a high probability in diabetic patients by measuring IMT and RI in carotid arteries.