Peripheral atherosclerosis evaluation through ultrasound: A promising diagnostic tool for coronary artery disease.
Łukasz ArtyszukEwelina BlazejowskaZuzanna DanieleckaJonasz JurekEwa OlekPiotr AbramczykPublished in: Echocardiography (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) (2023)
Effective treatment, but also proper diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, remains a major challenge in everyday practice. A quick, safe, and economically acceptable non-invasive procedure should play a leading role in cardiovascular risk assessment before invasive diagnostics is performed. The staging of subclinical atherosclerosis may help in further clinical decisions. Safe, widely available, and relatively inexpensive, ultrasonography is a promising examination that should find wider application in clinical practice. The latest ESC guidelines emphasize the usefulness of carotid ultrasound in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) and subclinical assessment of atherosclerosis, which help to determine the level of cardiovascular risk. Ultrasound examination of peripheral arteries, especially superficial vessels such as the femoral arteries, is quite easy, quick, and accurate. Other vascular beds, such as iliac and renal, are more demanding to examine, but can also provide valuable information. This review summarizes important studies comparing the severity of atherosclerosis in ultrasound-visible vascular beds in patients with established CAD. We especially emphasize the benefits of the combined assessment of atherosclerosis features, which were characterized by high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of CAD and other serious cardiovascular diseases.
Keyphrases
- coronary artery disease
- cardiovascular disease
- magnetic resonance imaging
- clinical practice
- cardiovascular events
- risk assessment
- percutaneous coronary intervention
- coronary artery bypass grafting
- primary care
- contrast enhanced ultrasound
- ultrasound guided
- computed tomography
- cardiovascular risk factors
- type diabetes
- metabolic syndrome
- heavy metals
- minimally invasive
- high resolution
- aortic valve
- acute coronary syndrome
- mass spectrometry
- health information
- atrial fibrillation
- smoking cessation