Baton Rouge Clinic Health Library

Cardiovascular Health > February is American Heart Month – How Well Are Your Arteries?

     Published: 02, 2009

Physicians and patients at the Baton Rouge Clinic now have a powerful tool to assist in the early identification of atherosclerosis. That tool is called carotid intima-media thickness or CIMT. The procedure involves a non-invasive, painless ultrasound measurement of the carotid artery in the neck. It is safe and affordable.

Atherosclerosis, or “hardening of the arteries,” is a lifelong process. Many risk factors have been associated with atherosclerosis. These include elevated LDL or “bad” cholesterol, low HDL or “good” cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, high blood pressure, tobacco use, diabetes, chronic inflammatory states, obesity, physical inactivity, poor dietary habits, and a variety of genetic factors. Age is also a risk factor, because the longer your arteries are exposed to risk factors, the more likely you are to develop atherosclerosis.

However, there is tremendous variability among individual patients of the same age. Some patients will be more susceptible to risk factors than others. Our bodies have a variety of protective mechanisms in place which are currently difficult to measure. Imaging of the wall of the carotid artery with high resolution ultrasound allows us to accurately measure the layer of the carotid artery where atherosclerosis develops. Your measurement can then be compared to a large database of patients free from cardiovascular disease. The age at which your measurement is the 50th percentile for that age group is your “vascular age.”

Why look at the neck artery when we are interested in the heart? The carotid arteries provide a “window” to the coronary arteries. Not only do they have similar risk factors, the relationship between the atherosclerotic burden in a carotid artery and a coronary artery is the same as between any two coronary arteries. By examining the carotid artery wall rather than the lumen (as in traditional carotid ultrasound tests which define blockages), risk prediction with carotid ultrasound identifies much earlier stages of atherosclerosis. The American Heart Association Prevention V recommendations recognize CIMT as a valid, reliable, safe, and non-invasive means for assessing cardiovascular disease.

For more information on CIMT testing, please contact the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Baton Rouge Clinic at 246-4430. Remember, you are only as old as your arteries!

David G. Carmouche, MD
Specializing in The Cardiovascular Center of Excellence

The Baton Rouge Clinic, AMC, offers this information as a courtesy service. Please remember that medical knowledge is always evolving and we cannot represent that any of our information is absolutely current. Please consult a physician before taking any medical action based on information gathered from this or any website.