Gender Differences in Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Patients With Suspected Coronary Artery Disease

Selecting patients who have suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) for coronary angiography remains difficult in some subgroups (e.g., women have often atypical symptoms and false-positive findings on noninvasive tests). This study evaluated gender differences and the clinical value of carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) in predicting CAD. We evaluated 558 patients who had symptoms and underwent coronary angiography: 91 women (61.2 ± 9.5 years of age) had CAD (≥1 lesion with a decrease >50% in luminal diameter of a coronary artery), 29 women (57.9 ± 7.0 years of age) did not have CAD, 372 men (58.9 ± 9.2 years of age) had CAD, and 66 men (54.6 ± 8.7 years of age) did not have CAD. Maximal IMT was assessed bilaterally at the common carotid, bulb, and internal carotid arteries and expressed as mean IMT for each patient. Among patients who did not have CAD, women had lower mean IMT values than men (0.93 ± 0.15 vs 1.05 ± 0.19, p < 0.001). This gender difference was not seen in patients who had CAD (1.3 ± 0.31 vs 1.31 ± 0.31, p = 0.92). Among women and men, those with CAD had larger IMT values than those without CAD. Multivariable regression analysis showed that age, CAD, hypertension, smoking, and diabetes had the strongest effect on IMT values in women and men. Receiver-operator characteristic analysis showed that women had a significantly lower IMT threshold for likelihood of CAD (p < 0.001) and that a mean IMT of 1.069 mm was highly predictive of concomitant CAD (sensitivity 79%, specificity 90%, positive predictive value 96%); for men, the mean IMT threshold was 1.153 mm (sensitivity 66%, specificity 74%, positive predictive value 93%). In conclusion, carotid IMT assessment may be a valuable tool in selecting patients for coronary angiography to predict the likelihood of CAD. This particularly concerns women in whom sensitivity and specificity of mean IMT are high.