Smoking effects on cyclic variation of harmonic echogenicity in carotid artery

The dynamic changes of echogenicity in common carotid artery was observed from coded harmonic images by GE ultrasound systems. The observed variation in echogenicity was related with the dynamic change of red blood cell (RBC) aggregation during a cardiac cycle. In this research, the cyclic variation in echogenicity (CVE) was observed in the harmonic images of the carotid artery from 28 smokers before and after smoking using a GE Voluson e ultrasound system. The amplitude of CVE (Acve) was significantly increased after smoking in the heavy smokers compared with the one in light smokers (4.98±4.26 vs −0.3±3.01, P