Association of automated carotid IMT measurement and HbA1c in Japanese patients with coronary artery disease

AIMS: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether carotid IMT (cIMT) identified using automated software is associated with HbA1c in Japanese patients with coronary artery disease. METHODS: 370 consecutive patients (males 218; median age 69 years±11) who underwent carotid-US and first coronary angiography were prospectively analyzed. After ultrasonographic examinations were performed, the plaque score (PS) was calculated and automated IMT analysis was obtained with a dedicated algorithm. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to calculate the association between automated IMT, PS and HbA1c. RESULTS: The mean value of cIMT was 1.00±0.47mm for the right carotid and 1.04±0.49mm for the left carotid; the average bilateral value was 1.02±0.43mm. No significant difference of cIMT was detected between men and women. We found a direct correlation between cIMT values and HbA1c (p=0.0007) whereas the plaque score did not correlate with the HbA1c values (p>0.05) CONCLUSION: The results of our study confirm that automated cIMT values and levels of HbA1c in Japanese patients with coronary artery disease are correlated whereas the plaque score does not show a statistically significant correlation.