A novel method for evaluating human carotid artery elasticity: Possible detection of early stage atherosclerosis in subjects with type 2 diabetes

We recently developed a novel method for evaluating the elasticity of arterial walls, the phased tracking method. Herein, we evaluated atherosclerosis of the carotid artery with this method in 242 individuals with type 2 diabetes. In multiple regression analysis of subject status, age, systolic blood pressure and hyperlipidemia were found to be independently associated with carotid artery elasticity values. We also measured currently established values for atherosclerosis, carotid artery IMT and baPWV, in these subjects. Carotid artery elasticity correlated with max IMT (r = 0.291, p < 0.01), plaque score (PS) (r = 0.220, p < 0.01) and baPWV (r = 0.345, p < 0.01). Elasticity, max IMT and plaque score, all correlated with the number of risk factors for atherosclerosis, i.e. hypertension, hyperlipidemia and smoking, in addition to diabetes, consistent with the view that these values reflect atherosclerosis. Importantly, however, in subjects with IMT <1.1 mm, who are classified as not having atherosclerosis as defined by IMT criteria, only carotid artery elasticity correlated with the number of risk factors (p < 0.05). These results suggest that (1) the measured carotid artery elasticity values reflect atherosclerosis and (2) our novel method has potential for detecting atherosclerosis in its early stage.