WEDNESDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDay News) -- C-reactive protein (CRP) levels provide a modest but significant marker for the presence and degree of carotid stenosis, researchers report in the November issue of the Archives of Surgery.
Philip S. Mullenix, M.D., of the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., and colleagues examined 146 patients over the age of 40 who had been referred to a vascular surgery clinic for carotid stenosis. All participants completed a baseline vascular clinical evaluation that included assessment of serum high-sensitivity CRP levels and bilateral carotid duplex ultrasonography.
In unadjusted analysis, CRP levels were positively correlated with carotid stenosis as well as with coronary artery disease and peripheral vascular disease. After adjustment for confounders, CRP levels were independently associated with the presence of carotid stenosis and with the actual degree of carotid stenosis. Mean CRP level was higher among the 72 patients who had carotid stenosis than among the 74 patients who did not, while levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were similar between the two groups. In comparative analysis under receiver operating characteristic curves, CRP levels were the only variables found to be statistically significant when compared with a null line.
"Together, these results suggest that the predictive value of CRP level, while modest, was additive to the traditionally used vascular risk factors currently considered in the management of carotid stenosis," the authors conclude.
Abstract
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