BACKGROUND This study evaluates carotid vulnerable plaques using contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and explores the relationship between vulnerable plaques and leukocytes. METHODS Sixty-two symptomatic and 54 asymptomatic patients underwent CEUS. The images were analyzed using time-intensity and fitting curves, and peak (PTIC), mean (MTIC), peak (PFC), sharpness (SFC), and area under the curve (AUCFC) were obtained. The relations between CEUS parameters and leukocytes were analyzed. RESULTS In the symptomatic group, total leukocytes and neutrophils were higher, while lymphocyte was decreased; PTIC, MTIC, PFC, SFC, and AUCFC were significantly higher; MTIC and AUCFC were negatively correlated with lymphocytes, and MTIC was positively correlated with neutrophils. Classification and regression tree analysis showed that MTIC at a cutoff of 20.8 and AUCFC at a cutoff of 8.8 resulted in a predictive of acute cerebral infarction, accuracy of 84.3%, sensitivity of 87.1%, and specificity of 81.5%. CONCLUSIONS The variation in the perivascular leucocyte is significantly related to intraplaque inflammatory activities, CEUS is a feasible monitor of intraplaque neovascularization, so CEUS combined with perivascular leucocyte could be helpful as a warning for vulnerable plaques.

中文翻译：

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颈动脉易损斑块与外周血白细胞之间的关系：病例对照研究，利用多参数对比增强超声进行比较。

背景技术这项研究使用对比增强超声（CEUS）评估了颈动脉易损斑块，并探讨了易损斑块与白细胞之间的关系。方法对62例有症状和54例无症状的患者进行了CEUS。使用时间强度和拟合曲线分析图像，并获得峰（PTIC），平均值（MTIC），峰（PFC），清晰度（SFC）和曲线下面积（AUCFC）。分析了CEUS参数与白细胞之间的关系。结果在对症组中，白细胞和中性粒细胞总数较高，而淋巴细胞则减少。PTIC，MTIC，PFC，SFC和AUCFC明显更高；MTIC和AUCFC与淋巴细胞呈负相关，MTIC与嗜中性粒细胞呈正相关。分类和回归树分析显示，MTIC的截止值为20。8和AUCFC的截止值为8.8可预测为急性脑梗塞，准确度为84.3％，敏感性为87.1％，特异性为81.5％。结论血管周白细胞的变化与斑块内炎症活动密切相关，CEUS是斑块内新血管形成的可行监测器，因此CEUS结合血管周白细胞可能有助于提示易损斑块。