Relationship Between Brachial Artery Flow-Mediated Dilation, Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness and Coronary Flow Reserve in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

Fahrettin Oz; Ali Elitok; Ahmet Kaya Bilge; Fehmi Mercanoglu; Huseyin Oflaz

doi:10.4021/cr219w

Relationship Between Brachial Artery Flow-Mediated Dilation, Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness and Coronary Flow Reserve in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

Cardiol Res. 2012 Oct;3(5):214-221. doi: 10.4021/cr219w. Epub 2012 Sep 20.

Authors

Fahrettin Oz¹, Ali Elitok¹, Ahmet Kaya Bilge¹, Fehmi Mercanoglu¹, Huseyin Oflaz¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Cardiology, Istanbul University, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.

PMID: 28348690
PMCID: PMC5358134
DOI: 10.4021/cr219w

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between brachial artery flow mediated dilation (FMD), carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) and coronary flow reserve (CFR) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).

Methods: Fifty patients with coronary artery disease, except left anterior descending artery (LAD), who showed no cardiac symptoms and 45 control subjects underwent assessment of brachial artery FMD, carotid artery intima-media thickness by high-resolution ultrasound. In addition, transthoracic second harmonic Doppler echocardiography was used to measure CFR.

Results: All of the parameters were found to be correlated with each other. CFR correlated with brachial artery FMD (r = 0.232, P < 0.05) and with carotid IMT (r = -0.403, P < 0.001). Carotid IMT correlated with brachial artery FMD (r = -0.211, P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Transthoracic CFR correlated with well-established noninvasive predictors of atherosclerosis and we suggest that it can be used as a surrogate for coronary atherosclerosis.

Keywords: Atherosclerosis; Carotid artery intima-media thickness; Coronary artery disease; Coronary flow reserve; Endothelial dysfunction; Flow mediated dilation.