Carotid Intima Media Thickness (IMT)
Your arteries in the neck are called "Carotid" arteries. They supply your head and brain with blood.
When you look at the walls of these arteries with ultrasound you can see a double-line pattern. The layers between these lines are called "Intima" and "Media". It looks like one single layer, because the two layers cannot be distinguished by ultrasound.
There are reasons, why we are interested in measuring the Carotid Intima Media Thickness (IMT). Carotid IMT has proved to be a risk factor for stroke and to a lesser extent also for heart attacks. This means, if your carotid Intima Media Thickness is higher, you are more likely to develop a stroke or heart attack, than if you had a low Carotid IMT.
What have thickening of your artery in the neck and heart attack and stroke in common?
Hardening or thickening of the arteries is also called atherosclerosis. Well advanced atherosclerosis of the arteries supplying your heart can cause a heart attack and well advanced atherosclerosis of your arteries in the neck can cause a stroke.
Measuring the carotid IMT could help to detect early atherosclerosis before you have any symptoms and to identify persons at high risk for heart attack or stroke.
Therefore, in the future IMT measurements may be used in addition to classical risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, overweight, family history and physical inactivity.
In our Effervescent clinical trial, we use the Carotid IMT to measure, if the study medication can stop the progression of atherosclerosis
M. Hollander, Stroke. 2003; O"Leary, N ENgl J med. 1999
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