Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Xue Bao, Biao Xu, Lars Lind, Gunnar Engstrom
Summary: Subclinical carotid atherosclerosis is an important factor in cardiovascular risk estimation by SCORE2. Carotid ultrasound improves the predictive performance of SCORE2 for cardiovascular risk assessment. SCORE2 may over-predict the risk in individuals without carotid plaque and under-predict the risk in those with carotid plaque.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PREVENTIVE CARDIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Weijie Cao, Yiting Xu, Yun Shen, Tingting Hu, Yufei Wang, Xiaojing Ma, Yuqian Bao
Summary: This study investigated the relationship between neck circumference (NC), carotid intima-media thickness (C-IMT), and carotid plaque. The results showed that higher NC was significantly associated with an increased risk of carotid plaque and elevated C-IMT.
NUTRITION METABOLISM AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES
(2022)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Engelbert A. Nonterah, Daniel Boateng, Nigel J. Crowther, Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch, Abraham R. Oduro, Godfred Agongo, Shukri F. Mohamed, Palwende R. Boua, Solomon S. R. Choma, Shane A. Norris, Stephen M. Tollman, Michiel L. Bots, Michele Ramsay, Diederick Grobbee
Summary: This study evaluated the association of carotid atherosclerosis and microalbuminuria with 10-year ASCVD risk in middle-aged individuals in sub-Saharan Africa. The results showed that microalbuminuria measured by SUA may indicate risk of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis and high 10-year ASCVD risk.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Min Kyoung Kang, Ki-Woong Nam, Jung Hwan Shin, Hyung-Min Kwon, Yong-Seok Lee
Summary: This study demonstrated that incorporating ultrasonographic parameters into conventional cardiovascular risk scores helps identify the risk of further vascular events in ACS patients. The peak-systolic velocity/end-diastolic velocity ratio was found to be significantly associated with an increased risk of relevant ischemic stroke.
Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Y. Xu, T. Hu, Y. Shen, Y. Wang, Xiaojing Ma, Yuqian Bao
Summary: The study found an inverse association between skeletal muscle mass and the incidence of carotid atherosclerosis in the community, suggesting that maintaining muscle mass may help modify atherosclerosis.
JOURNAL OF NUTRITION HEALTH & AGING
(2022)
Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Mengyuan Miao, Guo Zhou, Anran Bao, Yaming Sun, Huaping Du, Liyan Song, Yongjun Cao, Shoujiang You, Chongke Zhong
Summary: This study found an association between TyG index and carotid atherosclerosis in patients with ischemic stroke, suggesting that TyG could be a promising marker for atherosclerosis.
CARDIOVASCULAR DIABETOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Chi-Hsin Chen, Chih-Wei Sung, Jiann-Shing Jeng, Cheng-Yi Fan, Jia-How Chang, Jiun-Wei Chen, Sung-Chun Tang, Edward Pei-Chuan Huang
Summary: This study investigated the association between carotid ultrasound results and 1-year mortality of patients with neurological deficits in the emergency department. The results showed that carotid plaque score was associated with 1-year all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Olivier Bill, Michael V. V. Mazya, Patrik Michel, Tiago Prazeres Moreira, Dimitris Lambrou, Ivo A. A. Meyer, Lorenz Hirt
Summary: In the first week after an acute stroke, diabetic patients exhibit higher common carotid artery pulsatility index (PI) and common carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT), indicating a greater degree of atherosclerosis compared to non-diabetic patients.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Biology
Guang-Quan Zhou, Hao Wei, Xiaoyi Wang, Kai-Ni Wang, Yuzhao Chen, Fei Xiong, Guanqing Ren, Chunying Liu, Le Li, Qinghua Huang
Summary: In this work, we propose an end-to-end boundary-salience multi-branch network, BSMNet, to identify the carotid intima-media from ultrasound images. Our method exploits prior shape knowledge and anatomical dependence to improve the accuracy of boundary identification and incorporates a strip attention model for segmenting thin strip regions. Experimental results demonstrate the promising performance of our method, achieving about 0.02 improvement in Dice and HD95 compared to other state-of-the-art methods. Our method is expected to advance the analysis of systemic arterial disease with ultrasound imaging.
COMPUTERS IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Prossy Bibangambah, Linda C. Hemphill, Moses Acan, Alexander C. Tsai, Ruth N. Sentongo, June-Ho Kim, Isabelle T. Yang, Mark J. Siedner, Samson Okello
Summary: In rural Uganda, people living with HIV have a higher prevalence of carotid plaque compared to age- and sex-matched HIV-uninfected individuals. The study found that HIV infection and current smoking were associated with higher odds of carotid plaque, while moderate and vigorous intensity of physical activity were associated with decreased odds of carotid plaque. Future research should investigate biomedical and lifestyle modifications to reduce atherosclerotic burden among people living with HIV in the region.
BMC CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDERS
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Huaping Du, Tingting Guo, Huan Ye, Yingshi Bao, Zhuoyin Qiu, Yaming Sun, Shoujiang You, Yuan Liu, Yuan Xu, Chunqing Zhang, Chunfang Qiu
Summary: An elevated concentration of serum phosphorus is associated with carotid atherosclerosis in ischemic stroke patients, as measured by cIMT.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Lena Tschiderer, Lisa Seekircher, Raffaele Izzo, Costantino V. Mancusi, Maria Manzi, Damiano Baldassarre, Mauro Amato, Elena Tremoli, Fabrizio Veglia, Tomi-Pekka Tuomainen, Jussi Kauhanen, Ari Voutilainen, Bernhard Iglseder, Lars Lind, Tatjana Rundek, Moise Desvarieux, Akihiko Kato, Eric de Groot, Guelay Asci, Ercan Ok, Stefan Agewall, Joline W. J. D. Beulens, Christopher C. Byrne, Philip C. Calder, Hertzel Gerstein, Paolo Gresele, Gerhard Klingenschmid, Michiaki H. Nagai, Michael Olsen, Grace S. Parraga, Maya Safarova, Naveed Sattar, Michael Skilton, Coen D. A. Stehouwer, Heiko A. Uthoff, Michiel A. van Agtmael, Amber A. van der Heijden, Dorota Zozulinska-Ziolkiewicz, Hyun-Woong Park, Moo-Sik Lee, Jang-Ho Bae, Oscar F. Beloqui, Manuel Landecho, Matthieu Plichart, Pierre Ducimetiere, Jean Philippe Empana, Lena Bokemark, Goeran Bergstroem, Caroline Schmidt, Samuela Castelnuovo, Laura D. Calabresi, Giuseppe Norata, Liliana Grigore, Alberico Catapano, Dong Zhao, Miao Wang, Jing Liu, M. Arfan Ikram, Maryam L. Kavousi, Michiel J. Bots, Michael W. Sweeting, Matthias Lorenz, Peter Willeit
Summary: This study conducted a meta-analysis of individual participant data from 20 prospective studies and found that common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT) is associated with the risk of developing carotid plaque, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Carlos Torres, Cheemun Lum, Paulo Puac-Polanco, Grant Stotts, Michel Christopher Frank Shamy, Dylan Blacquiere, Ronda Lun, Prasham Dave, Aditya Bharatha, Bijoy K. Menon, Rebecca Thornhill, Franco Momoli, Dar Dowlatshahi
Summary: This study validated the use of a filling defect length threshold of >3.8 mm on CTA to accurately discriminate between free-floating thrombus and plaque. The sensitivity and specificity of this threshold were high, with an optimal length threshold of >3.64 mm. Adjusted logistic regression revealed that an increase in filling defect length is associated with increased odds of free-floating thrombus.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Maria Sjolander, Bo Carlberg, Margareta Norberg, Ulf Naslund, Nawi Ng
Summary: The provision of pictorial information on vascular age and carotid plaques based on ultrasonographic examination results increased physician prescription of lipid-lowering drugs but did not affect antihypertensive drug prescriptions within 465 days.
Review
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Hongwei Li, Xiaolin Xu, Baoming Luo, Yuling Zhang
Summary: Carotid ultrasound is crucial in assessing cardiovascular disease risk, but challenges in measurement heterogeneity and normative value definition hinder personalized risk assessment optimization. New technologies and comprehensive evaluations may enhance risk stratification and preventive decision-making.
FRONTIERS IN CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Peripheral Vascular Disease
Lucas S. Aparicio, Qi-Fang Huang, Jesus D. Melgarejo, Dong-Mei Wei, Lutgarde Thijs, Fang-Fei Wei, Natasza Gilis-Malinowska, Chang-Sheng Sheng, Jose Boggia, Teemu J. Niiranen, Augustine N. Odili, Katarzyna Stolarz-Skrzypek, Jessica Barochiner, Daniel Ackermann, Kalina Kawecka-Jaszcz, Valerie Tikhonoff, Zhen-Yu Zhang, Edoardo Casiglia, Krzysztof Narkiewicz, Jan Filipovsky, Aletta E. Schutte, Wen-Yi Yang, Antti M. Jula, Angela J. Woodiwiss, Murielle Bochud, Gavin R. Norton, Ji-Guang Wang, Yan Li, Jan A. Staessen
Summary: The IDCARS database includes 10,930 subjects from 13 studies across different regions, with prevalence rates of office hypertension and diabetes mellitus reported. The central and peripheral systolic/diastolic blood pressure, as well as aortic pulse wave velocity, were measured. Longitudinal studies showed a median follow-up of 4.2 years, with cardiovascular events and deaths reported during the follow-up period. The IDCARS database provides valuable information for investigating central hemodynamic measurements and may inform guidelines for managing hypertension.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION
(2022)
Article
Peripheral Vascular Disease
Andrea Kolkenbeck-Ruh, Larske Marit Soepnel, Andrew Wooyoung Kim, Sanushka Naidoo, Wayne Smith, Justine Davies, Lisa Jayne Ware
Summary: There are differences in the measurement of PWV between Mobil-O-Graph and SphygmoCor XCEL devices in South African women and children. In adults, the SphygmoCor XCEL device shows significantly higher PWV compared to the Mobil-O-Graph device, while no correlation is found between the two devices in children.
JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION
(2022)
Article
Peripheral Vascular Disease
Nonhlanhla Mthembu, Gavin R. Norton, Vernice R. Peterson, Ravi Naran, Suraj M. Yusuf, Grace Tade, Hamza Bello, Adamu Bamaiyi, Carlos D. Libhaber, Patrick Dessein, Ferande Peters, Pinhas Sareli, Angela J. Woodiwiss
Summary: The study explores the mechanisms of the relationship between heart rate and central pulse pressure and its dependence on age. It finds that the increased central pulse pressure associated with a lower heart rate is mainly attributed to the enhanced backward wave rather than the prolonged ejection or filling duration. These findings have clinical implications, especially in older adults.
Article
Peripheral Vascular Disease
Suraj M. Yusuf, Gavin R. Norton, Vernice Peterson, Carlos D. Libhaber, Keneilwe N. Mmopi, Hamza Bello, Mohlabani Masiu, Daniel Da Silva Fernandes, Grace Tade, Nonhlanhla Mthembu, Ferande Peters, Patrick Dessein, Pinhas Sareli, Angela J. Woodiwiss
Summary: Peak aortic flow is the most strongly inherited determinant of systolic blood pressure (SBP) in Africa, making it an important target for novel therapeutic approaches to controlling SBP.
JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION
(2022)
Article
Peripheral Vascular Disease
Brittany A. Boerstra, Larske M. Soepnel, Veronique Nicolaou, Andrea Kolkenbeck-Ruh, Juliana Kagura, Lisa J. Ware, Shane A. Norris, Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch
Summary: While maternal hyperglycaemia was not associated with childhood blood pressure at age 3-6 years, the prevalence of elevated blood pressure in this group of preschool-aged children is concerning. Future research is needed to further evaluate childhood obesity as a modifiable risk factor to reduce hypertension and cardiovascular risk in an African setting.
JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION
(2022)
Article
Urology & Nephrology
Hon-Chun Hsu, Grace Tade, Gavin R. Norton, Ferande Peters, Chanel Robinson, Noluntu Dlongolo, Gloria Teckie, Angela J. Woodiwiss, Patrick H. Dessein
Summary: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with impaired left ventricular diastolic function, and aortic stiffness mediates this relationship, while aortic pulsatile pressures contribute to filling pressures but do not fully explain the association.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NEPHROLOGY AND RENOVASCULAR DISEASE
(2022)
Article
Substance Abuse
Larske M. Soepnel, Andrea Kolkenbeck-Ruh, Simone H. Crouch, Catherine E. Draper, Lisa J. Ware, Stephen J. Lye, Shane A. Norris
Summary: This study examined the scope of tobacco use among young women in urban South Africa and found that multiparity, moderate to severe socio-economic vulnerability, and alcohol and drug use were associated with tobacco use. These findings indicate the need for targeted anti-tobacco interventions to address the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases in this setting.
DRUG AND ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Naseer Ally, Hassan Dawood Alli, Trishal Jeeva-Patel, Andre Mochan, Eitzaz Sadiq, Ismail Mayet, Marianne Kuenast, Leisha Rajkumar
Summary: This study aims to assess the presentation and outcome of optic neuritis patients in a South African setting, representing one of the few cohort studies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The hope is that it will lead to better insights and potentially a predictive model for good visual outcome.
Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Nonhlanhla Mthembu, Vernice R. Peterson, Gavin R. Norton, Eitzaz Sadiq, Andrea Kolkenbeck-Ruh, Ravi Naran, Suraj M. Yusuf, Grace Tade, Hamza Bello, Adamu Bamaiyi, Carlos D. Libhaber, Patrick Dessein, Ferande Peters, Taalib Monareng, Talib Abdool-Carrim, Ismail Cassimjee, Pinhas Sareli, Girish Modi, Angela J. Woodiwiss
Summary: This study found that increased aortic stiffness amplifies the adverse effects of heart rate on central blood pressure. Participants aged 60 years and older, as well as those with arterial events, were more sensitive to the relationship between heart rate and backward wave pressures. Additionally, there was an interaction between indexes of aortic stiffness and heart rate, but not between pulse wave velocity and heart rate independently.
FRONTIERS IN CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Peripheral Vascular Disease
Suraj M. M. Yusuf, Gavin R. R. Norton, Vernice R. R. Peterson, Nico Malan, Monica Gomes, Nonhlanhla Mthembu, Carlos D. D. Libhaber, Grace Tade, Hamza Bello, Adamu J. J. Bamaiyi, Keneilwe N. N. Mmopi, Ferande Peters, Pinhas Sareli, Patrick H. H. Dessein, Angela J. J. Woodiwiss
Summary: In patients with sustained volume-dependent primary hypertension, those with uncontrolled systolic blood pressure show attenuated relationships between ANP and renal and hemodynamic indexes of volume overload.
Article
Urology & Nephrology
Grace Tade, Hon-Chun Hsu, Angela J. Woodiwiss, Ferande Peters, Chanel Robinson, Noluntu Dlongolo, Gloria Teckie, Ahmed Solomon, Gavin R. Norton, Patrick H. Dessein
Summary: This study found that uric acid, ferritin, albumin, intact parathyroid hormone, and gamma-glutamyl transferase are associated with uremic cardiomyopathy characteristics and can be useful in identifying these characteristics.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NEPHROLOGY AND RENOVASCULAR DISEASE
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Mark Stoutenberg, Simone H. Crouch, Lia K. McNulty, Andrea Kolkenbeck-Ruh, Georgia Torres, Philippe J. L. Gradidge, Andy Ly, Lisa J. Ware
Summary: This study examined how community members in a historically disadvantaged township in South Africa perceive home visits conducted by community health workers for non-communicable disease care. The findings showed that community members highly accepted and appreciated the visits, and were satisfied with the information and advice provided.
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH-HEIDELBERG
(2023)
Article
Peripheral Vascular Disease
Angela J. Woodiwiss, Ane Orchard, Catharina M. C. Mels, Aletta S. Uys, Benedicta N. Nkeh-Chungag, Andrea Kolkenbeck-Ruh, Lisa J. Ware, Samantha Yates, Erika S. W. Jones, Vernice R. Peterson, Neil R. Poulter
Summary: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death in South Africa (SA), with high blood pressure (BP) as the primary risk factor. However, the prevalence of hypertension is high, BP control is poor, and CV events occur at a younger age than in Europe or America. Therefore, increasing screening, raising awareness, and improving management of hypertension are critical to prevent CVD in SA.
JOURNAL OF HUMAN HYPERTENSION
(2023)
Review
Medicine, General & Internal
Simone H. Crouch, Larske M. Soepnel, Andrea Kolkenbeck-Ruh, Innocent Maposa, Sanushka Naidoo, Justine Davies, Shane A. Norris, Lisa J. Ware
Summary: This study conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to provide updated estimates of paediatric hypertension in Africa, finding a continued increase in prevalence, especially among overweight/obese children.
