Correlation Study between Serum Homocysteine Level and Carotid Artery Atherosclerosis in Patients with Cerebral Infarction

Objective To explore the serum homocysteine(Hcy) level in patients with cerebral infarction(CI) and discuss its correlation with carotid artery atherosclerosis(CAA).Methods Total 54 patients with CI were chosen as the cerebral infarction group and 25 patients without cerebrovascular diseases hospitalized during the same period were chosen as the control group.The serum Hcy level,four indices of blood lipids,fasting blood glucose(FBS) and serum uric acid(UA) were tested,and the intimal-medial wall thickness(IMT) were examined by color Doppler ultrasound.All the dates were compared between the two groups.Results Elevation of serum Hcy level was shown in 40 patients(74.07%) in the cerebral infarction group and 6 patients(24.00%) in the control group.The mean serum Hcy levels were(20.00±5.67)μmol/L in the cerebral infarction group and(13.80±2.10)μmol/L in in the control group(P0.01).Hcy level was irrelevant with blood lipids,FBS and UA(P0.05),but positively correlated with the carotid intimal-medial wall thickness(r=0.329,P0.05).Conclusion The high serum homocysteine level is a main risk factor for cerebral infarction and is closely related to CAA.