The prevalence of hypoechoic carotid plaques is greater in peripheral than in coronary artery disease and is related to the neutrophil count

Correlation between visual classification of plaque echogenicity (four types) and mean gray-scale median values (GSM) presented with the standard deviation (whiskers). Spearman analysis ρ = 0.714; P < .01.

Number of neutrophils in coronary artery disease and peripheral arterial disease patients evaluated by visual analysis (upper panel) and gray-scale median (GSM) analysis (lower panel). With both procedures, the neutrophil count was higher in patients with hypoechoic than in those with echorich plaques. Furthermore, the prevalence of hypoechoic plaques in patients with a neutrophil number that exceeded the median was markedly higher than in those with a neutrophil number that was less than the median. Type 1 and type 2 plaques were considered hypoechoic for the visual analysis; whereas plaques with a GSM value of <34.9 (ie, the 25th percentile of the GSM median value) were considered “hypoechoic” for the GSM analysis. Data are presented with the standard deviation (error bars).