Muscle strength and carotid artery flow velocity is associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis in adults.

Background: Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) has been proposed as a surrogate marker of atherosclerotic disease. In addition, carotid flow velocity (FV) and muscle strength (MS) are reported to be associated with increased CIMT. As there remains insufficient evidence for a complex association of CIMT with FV and MS, the aim of this study was to examine this association in adults.

Methods: A total of 426 adults participated in this study. MS in all subjects was measured by hand grip strength. Carotid variables were measured with B-mode ultrasound. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed to assess independent differences in the CIMT among four groups, according to the level of peak systolic flow velocity (PSV) and MS after multivariate adjustment. Logistic regression analysis was performed to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the independent as-sociations between PSV and MS and the estimated risk of atherosclerosis.

Results: Increased CIMT is associated with MS and PSV. ANCOVA showed that the CIMT varied significantly among groups according to the level of PSV and MS after multivariate adjustment. When calculated for the estimated risk of carotid atherosclerosis, the adjusted OR for the low PSV and MS group was 3.87 (95% CI 1.78-8.44).

Conclusions: The results suggest that CIMT and risk of carotid atherosclerosis are significantly cor-related with PSV and upper body MS, more closely for the PSV than for the MS after adjustment for po-tential confounders. PSV by itself, and/or PSV with grip strength may be an indicator of atherosclerotic plaque instability. (Cardiol J 2017; 24, 4: 385-392).