A practical protocol to measure common carotid artery intima-media thickness.

Objective: To describe and test a practical protocol to measure common carotid intima-media thickness that uses the combined values of two longitudinal examination angles to increase sensitivity.

Method: Between February and September 2005, 206 patients underwent duplex scan examination of carotid vessels, and the intima-media thickness of 407 common carotids were measured in three angles: transversal, longitudinal posterolateral, and anterolateral, with three intima-media thickness measurements for each near and far wall. In addition to numbers obtained from the three angles of measurement, a fourth visual perspective was obtained by combining the intima-media thickness results of posterolateral and anterolateral longitudinal views and considering the thickest wall measurement.

Results: Two hundred seventy (66.3%) carotid arteries had an intima-media thickness thicker than 1mm. The mean intima-media thickness values achieved by the different incidences were 1.26+/-0.6 mm (transversal), 1.17+/-0.54 mm (longitudinal anterolateral), and 1.18+/-0.58 mm (longitudinal posterolateral). A significant difference in intima-media thickness measurement values was observed when the three angles of examination plus the combined positive results of both longitudinal angles were compared by ANOVA (P=0.005). The LSD Post-Hoc test determined that the combined longitudinal view results were similar to the transversal views (P=0.28) and had greater intima-media thickness means than isolated anterolateral or posterolateral longitudinal views (P=0.02 and 0.05, respectively).

Conclusions: The protocol presented is a practical method for obtaining common carotid artery intima-media thickness measurements. The combined longitudinal posterolateral and anterolateral longitudinal views provide a more sensitive evaluation of the inner layers of the carotid walls than isolated longitudinal views.