OBJECTIVE: Studying independent risk factors for carotid artery-related Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS) in affected patients can help guide the clinical prevention and prognosis of AIS. METHODS: In this retrospective study, 81 patients who were admitted to our center for routine carotid ultrasound and contrast-enhanced ultrasound examinations were enrolled. The patients were assigned to the study and control groups based on whether they had AIS symptoms. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the correlation between risk factors and carotid artery-related AIS. RESULTS: Significant differences in Intraplaque Neovascularization (IPN) grade, vascular stenosis, different age stages, plaque length and diameter, and hypertension were observed between the two groups (P II was significantly higher in the study group than in the control group (33.3% (27/81) vs 7.4% (6/81); P II, the values for the aforementioned parameters were 76.54%, 81.81%, 72.92%, 85.36%, and 67.50%, respectively. Statistically significant differences in sensitivity and negative predictive value were observed between the two groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: IPN grading demonstrates a stronger association and higher discriminative ability for AIS than for carotid stenosis. It may provide valuable information for early clinical identification, risk stratification, and prevention of carotid artery-related AIS.
Xiao et al. (Tue,) studied this question.