Computer-assisted Carotid Plaque Analysis: Characteristics of Plaques Associated with Cerebrovascular Symptoms and Cerebral Infarction

Objective: to correlate the echostructural characteristics of carotid plaques with neurological symptoms and cerebral infarcts. Materials: one hundred and five plaques were studied in 74 patients by colour-flow duplex ultrasound: 39 were symptomatic and 37 were associated with brain infarction on CT scanning. Methods: the images were digitalised for computer-assisted image standardisation and divided in homogenous (n=67) and heterogenous (n=38) groups. Parameters of the plaque image were analysed. Results: global echogenicity was significantly lower in symptomatic and in CT+plaques (p