assessment of carotid artery distensibility and elasticity in patients with asthma

As asthma and atherosclerosis have similar pathophysiological mechanisms and risk factors,asthmatic patients may have an increased risk of atherosclerosis. this study aimed to determinethe possibility of a higher risk of atherosclerosis in asthma patients compared with healthycontrols by measuring carotid elasticity and distensibility.this was a cross-sectional study on 326 participants including 221 patients (129 [58.37%]females) with persistent asthma, aged 46.47±11.58 years, body mass index (bmi) of 29.74±3.99,and 105 healthy control subjects (60 [57.14%] females) aged 46.08±11.35 years, and bmi of29.42±3.76. of the 221 patients with asthma, 75 (33.93%) had mild, 74 (33.48%) had moderateand 72 (32.57%) had severe asthma. the carotid distensibility and elasticity were recorded andcompared in both patients and control groups.there was no statistically significant difference between the patients and healthy controlgroups in terms of age, bmi and gender (p=0.775, p=0.482, and p=0.834, respectively). astatistically significant difference was determined between the patient and control groups inrespect of both distensibility and elasticity (10.93±1.64 vs. 11.5±1.31, p=0.002 and 0.21±0.03 vs.0.22±0.04, p=0.001, respectively). statistically significant differences were determined betweenthe control group and the asthma subgroups in respect of distensibility and elasticity (p<0.001, forboth comparisons). the results showed that the difference was mainly due to the patients withsevere asthma.carotid distensibility and elasticity were decreased in asthmatic patients, and the main reasonfor this decrease was the patients in the severe asthma group. these results may suggest that therisk of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis is increased in patients with asthma, especially thosewith severe asthma