Carotid Intima Media Thickness In Metabolic Syndrome - An Indian Perpective

BACKGROUND: Carotid Intima Media Thickness (CIMT) is a surrogate marker for atherosclerosis. It cor- relates well with incident heart disease or stroke. In this study we used CIMT as a marker of atheroscle- rosis to identify individuals at high risk of cardiovascular disease in a group of subjects with Metabolic syndrome in a tertiary care hospital in South India METHODS: 116 subjects in the age group of 45to 60 years were enrolled to look at the CIMT. A cut off value of 0.8 mm or more was used to identify the high risk group, in an observational study design. Measurement was taken at 6 sites of the carotid. The results were analysed using chi square tests and multivariate logistic regression analysis to con- trol for traditional risk factors. RESULTS: We found that the prevalence of high CIMT was 10.34%. CIMT was found to be significantly associated with Metabolic syndrome (p value of ‹0.001). Other traditional risk factors like diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia were not significantly associated with elevated CIMT. The best site for measurement of CIMT was the internal carotid. CONCLUSIONS: Metabolic syndrome is significantly associated with CIMT. The risk attributable to Metabolic syn- drome is over and above the risk conferred by individual risk factors or combinations of them. The site which gives the best pick up rate of high CIMT is the internal carotid.