A comparison of intima media thickness in the common carotid artery, the bulb and plaque area as predictions of incident atherosclerotic events.

In elderly subjects, both IMT-bulb and plaque area improved the discrimination regarding incident atherosclerotic disease when added to traditional risk factors. This was not seen for IMT-CCA. IMT-CCA was therefore inferior compared to the other two carotid artery ultrasonographic measurements in this sample of elderly subjects.