Measurement of carotid artery intima-media thickness in dyslipidemic patients increases the power of traditional risk factors to predict cardiovascular events.

A longitudinal observational study investigated whether the measurement, in clinical practice, of carotid maximum intima-media thickness (Max-IMT) could be combined with the Framingham risk score (FRS) to improve the predictability of cardiovascular events in dyslipidemic patients who are at low or intermediate risk. Max-IMT was measured by ultrasound in 1969 patients attending a lipid clinic. The "best threshold values" (BTVs) above which we considered the Max-IMT to be abnormally high were calculated for our dyslipdemic population for each 10-year age interval in men and women.

Recognition of patients with cardiovascular disease by artificial neural networks.

Background: Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are computer algorithms inspired by the highly interactive processing of the human brain. When exposed to complex data sets, ANNs can learn the mechanisms that correlate different variables and perform complex classification tasks.

Aims: A database, of 949 patients and 54 variables, was analysed to evaluate the capacity of ANNs to recognise patients with (VE+, n = 196) or without (VE-, n = 753) a history of vascular events on the basis of vascular risk factors (VRFs), carotid ultrasound variables (UVs) or both.

Correlation of parents' longevity with carotid intima-media thickness in patients attending a Lipid Clinic.

The relationship between carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and the subject's parents' longevity has been investigated. The association between parents' age at death and IMT was estimated in 593 consecutive patients attending a Lipid Clinic by survival-analysis methods. Average maximum IMT (Avg-IMT), maximum IMT (Max-IMT), clinical and laboratory variables and parental age at death, were assessed.