Carotid plaque thickness is increased in chronic kidney disease and associated with carotid and coronary calcification

Sasha S. Bjergfelt, Ida M.H. Sørensen, Henrik Hjortkjær, Nino Landler, Ellen L.F. Ballegaard, Tor Biering-Sørensen, Klaus F. Kofoed, Theis Lange, Bo Feldt-Rasmussen, Henrik Sillesen, Christina Christoffersen, Susanne Bro*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)
24 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Background Chronic kidney disease accelerates both atherosclerosis and arterial calcification. The aim of the present study was to explore whether maximal carotid plaque thickness (cPTmax) was increased in patients with chronic kidney disease compared to controls and associated with cardiovascular disease and severity of calcification in the carotid and coronary arteries. Methods The study group consisted of 200 patients with chronic kidney disease stage 3 from the Copenhagen Chronic Kidney Disease Cohort and 121 age- and sex-matched controls. cPTmax was assessed by ultrasound and arterial calcification by computed tomography scanning. Results Carotid plaques were present in 58% of patients (n = 115) compared with 40% of controls (n = 48), p = 0.002. Among participants with plaques, cPTmax (median, interquartile range) was significantly higher in patients compared with controls (1.9 (1.4-2.3) versus 1.5 (1.2- 1.8) mm), p = 0.001. Cardiovascular disease was present in 9% of patients without plaques (n = 85), 23% of patients with cPTmax 1.0-1.9 mm (n = 69) and 35% of patients with cPTmax >1.9 mm (n = 46), p = 0.001. Carotid and coronary calcium scores >400 were present in 0% and 4%, respectively, of patients with no carotid plaques, in 19% and 24% of patients with cPTmax 1.0-1.9 mm, and in 48% and 53% of patients with cPTmax >1.9 mm, p<0.001. Conclusions This is the first study showing that cPTmax is increased in patients with chronic kidney disease stage 3 compared to controls and closely associated with prevalent cardiovascular disease and severity of calcification in both the carotid and coronary arteries.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0260417
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume16
Number of pages16
ISSN1932-6203
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Bjergfelt et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Cite this