Evaluation Of The Correlation Between Neovascularization And Clinical Symptoms In Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaque By Superb Micro-vascular Imaging

ObjectiveTo investigate the value of superb micro-vascular imaging(SMI)in evaluating the relationship between neovascularization in carotid atherosclerotic plaque and clinical symptoms.Materials and Methods52 patients with 52 carotid atherosclerotic plaques in our hospital were included in the study.The patients were divided into symptomatic group(n=3 8)and asymptomatic group(n=14)according to ischemic cerebrovascular disease.Conventional ultrasound was used to evaluate the plaque thickness,echo,and the degree of carotid artery stenosis,and SMI was used to detect and grade the neovascularization in plaques.In 41 of these patients who underwent endarterectomy,the surgical specimens were available for histological determination of microvessel density by CD34 staining.ResultsIn the whole series of 52 lesions,78.9%(30/38)of the plaques were dominated by hypoechoic components in the symptomatic group while 42.9%(6/14)in the asymptomatic groups.There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups(P<0.05).There was a statistically significant difference in SMI grading between the two groups(x2=6.535，P=0.038)，and 28.9%of the symptomatic group had grade Ⅲblood flow,which was significantly higher than the asymptomatic group(P=0.025).The degree of carotid artery stenosis and plaque thickness were not correlated with the occurrence of clinical symptoms.In the surgical subgroup,there was a positive correlation between SMI grading and MVD(r=0.399,P=0.010).The MVD in the symptomatic group was significantly higher than that in the asymptomatic group(P=0.005).ConclusionThe occurrence of ischemic cerebrovascular disease in patients with carotid atherosclerotic plaque is related to the histological density of neovessels and the echo of plaque,but not significantly related to the degree of stenosis.Superb micro-vascular imaging could be used as the primary imaging method to evaluate neovascularization in plaques and may provide valuable information for plaque risk stratification beyond that provided by standard ultrasound imaging.Objective1、To investigate the expression of Ang-1 and Ang-2 in carotid atherosclerotic plaque.2、To analyze the relationship between the expression of Ang-1,Ang-2 and MVD in plaques.To explore the mechanism of Ang-1 and Ang-2 in carotid atherosclerotic plaque neovascularization.Materials and MethodsCarotid endarterectomy specimens were studied(n = 41).The patients were divided into symptomatic group(n=32)and asymptomatic group(n=9)according to ischemic cerebrovascular disease.All plaques were stained with CD34 antibody,Ang-1 antibody and Ang-1 antibody after operation.CD34 marked micro-vessel density(MVD)was counted.The relationship between the expression of Ang-1,Ang-2 and MVD in the two group of plaques were analyzed.ResultsThere was a significant positive correlation between Ang-2 expression and MVD(r=0.652,p<0.001).There was no significant correlation between Ang-1 expression and MVD.The expression of Ang-2 in the symptomatic group was higher than that in the asymptomatic group(P=0.02).There was no significant difference in the expression of Ang-1 between the two groups.The expression of Ang-2 in the two groups was significantly higher than that of Ang-1(P=0.028).ConclusionAng-2 may play a key role in neovascularization of carotid atherosclerotic plaque.The high expression of Ang-2 and low expression of Ang-1 might promote the occurrence and development of atherosclerosis.