Relation study between the carotid artery plaque morphology and plasma inflammatory mediators

Objective To evaluate the vulnerability of carotid artery plaque by the morphological changes of carotid atherosclerotic plaques and levels of plasma inflammatory markers.Methods 68 cases of patients with the first attacking cerebral infarction(group A),62 cases with asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis(group B) and 55 normal controls(group C) were investigated.The intima-medial thickness(IMT),plaque type were detected or calculated respectively by Ultrasonic inspection,then the plasma levels of high sensilive C-reactive protein(hs-CRP),matrix metalloproteinase(MMP,including MMP-2 and MMP-9) and CD40 liqand(CD40L) were measured by ELISA.The patients of group A were evaluated with neurologic impairment scale.Results Compared with group B,IMT of group A was higher(P 0.05).The plasma levels of hs-CRP,MMP-2,MMP-9 and CD40L of vulnerable plaque patients were higher than those of no plaque and stable plaque patients(P 0.05).The plasma levels of hs-CRP,MMP-2,MMP-9 and CD40L of group A were higher than those of group B and group C(P 0.05).Among the vulnerable plague patients,correlation analysis manifested that there were positive correlation between levels of hs-CRP and MMP-2,MMP-9;there were positive correlation between MMP-2 and MMP-9,CD40L;there was a positive correlation between MMP-9 and CD40L.NFDS had positive correlation with hs-CRP,MMP-2,MMP-9,CD40L levels of group A.Conclusion Ultrasonic inspection combined with detection of plasma levels of inflammatory mediators are helpful with judging the vulnerability of carotid artery plaques.