Study of Carotid Arteries in Hypertensive Patients Using Color Doppler Ultrasonography

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the carotid arteries in hypertensive patients using color Doppler ultrasonography in order to find quantitative relation between the blood flow indices and the laboratory tests values. This study was carried out in Libyan nationality during the period from 2012 to 2015 in 368 patients (130 were normal and 238 were hypertensive) using grey scale and color Doppler ultrasonography to find the RI of both carotid arteries and intima media thickness, as well as other parameters associated with hypertension. The results of this study revealed that there is a real difference between the normal and hypertensive patients for all factors except the age and Body Mass Index( BMI), where there was no influential factor that showed inconclusive differences. Using stepwise linear discriminant analysis to classify the data into normal and hypertensive patients, 8 variables were chosen by the program as the most discriminant factors they include: Systolic blood pressure (SBP),Diastolic blood pressure (DBP), (BMI) ,Plasma Total Cholesterol( PTC) Plasma Total Glyceride(PTG) ,Right Intima Media Thickness (RT IMT), Left Intima Media Thickness(LT IMT)and Right Resistive Index (RT RI) the classification accuracy was 100% as well as the sensitivity and specificity. And the generated model that can be used to classify other groups, Systolic and diastolic blood pressure concerning the normal and hypertensive patients showed remarkable differences between the two groups where the values for hypertensive patients in average were apparently exceed that of the normal with a minimum variation that keep the differences between the two groups. The (PTC) was higher as usual in hypertensive patients than normal and there is a significance differences between the two groups, the intima media thickness for the RT and LT carotid arteries showed that, hypertensive patients were associate with a thicker intima than the normal respondent with considerable variation attributed to hypertensive in respect to the stage of their condition.