Correlations Between Femoral Intima-media Thickness and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease

Abstract

Background: Atherosclerosis has a systemic impact, producing gradual stenoses of the main vessels, and many imaging techniques have been developed in order to detect and quantify the atherosclerotic lesions. Peripheral artery disease has been shown to be associated with the presence of coronary heart disease, at the same time with carotid artery involvement. The utility of the carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) in predicting cardiovascular events caused by atherosclerosis, led to the idea that assessing the femoral artery IMT could have a similar impact.

Keywords

• atheroclerosis
• femoral artery intima-media thickness
• cardiovascular events