Association between carotid artery plaque inflammation and brain MRI - 23/11/18

Doi : 10.1016/j.neurad.2018.10.004

Luca Saba ^a,^⁎ , Letizia Lai ^b, Pierleone Lucatelli ^c, Roberto Sanfilippo ^d, Roberto Montisci ^d, Jasjit S Suri ^e, Gavino Faa ^b
^a Department of Radiology, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria (A.O.U.), di Cagliari, Polo di Monserrato, ss. 554 Monserrato (Cagliari) 09045, Italy
^b Department of Pathology, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria (A.O.U.), di Cagliari, Polo di Monserrato. ss. 554 Monserrato (Cagliari) 09045, Italy
^c Department of Radiological Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
^d Department of Vascular Surgery, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria (A.O.U.), di Cagliari, Polo di Monserrato, ss. 554 Monserrato (Cagliari) 09045, Italy
^e Diagnostic and monitoring division AtheroPoint, Roseville, CA, USA

^⁎Corresponding author.

En prensa. Pruebas corregidas por el autor. Disponible en línea desde el Friday 23 November 2018
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Abstract

Purpose

To explore the association between presence of inflammatory cells in the carotid plaques surgically treated and brain MRI findings.

Material and methods

Forty consecutive patients were prospectively analyzed. Brain MRI was performed with a 1.5 Tesla scanner and infacts (lacuna and non-lacunar) pertinence of the anterior circulation were recorded. All patients underwent carotid endarterectomy “en bloc”; carotid plaques histological sections were prepared and immuno-cytochemical analysis was performed to characterize and quantify the presence of inflammatory cells. ROC curve analysis, Pearson Rho correlation and Mann–Whitney test were applied.

Results

The immuno-cytochemical analysis demonstrated that plaques of symptomatic patients (stroke\TIA; n = 25) had more inflammatory cells, mainly macrophages (CD68) compared with plaques of patients without symptoms (Mann–Whitney = P < 0.001, ROC curve area = 0.901). Correlation analysis showed a statistically significant association between the number of brain non-lacunar infarcts and the entity of macrophages (P < 0.001); whereas no association with lacunar infarcts (P = 0.1934) was found.

Conclusion

Results of this preliminary study suggest that the presence and amount of inflammatory cells within carotid artery plaque is associated with cerebrovascular events and with the number of MRI brain detectable infarct.

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Keywords : Carotid, Brain, Atherosclerosis