Abstract Body: Background: Atherosclerosis is an important pathological basis of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. At present, the main treatment goal is to control the level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). However, 47.5% of the patients who were treated according to the guidelines and reached the LDL-C level still had plaque progress. The cause of plaque progression is not totally clear.
Objective: The aim of the study is to explore the risk factors of intracranial and/or extracranial atherosclerosis/stenosis progression, find the specific biomarkers related to its occurrence and development, so as to facilitate early individualized treatment and reduce the occurrence of stroke events.
Methods and design: This is a multicenter, prospective, observational cohort study involving 2000 subjects. Patients older than 18 years old with at least one intracranial and/or extracranial artery stenosis ≥ 30% confirmed by cervical vascular ultrasound, CTA, MRA, TCD or DSA will be included. These subjects will be excluded: (1) Suffering from other known serious life-threatening diseases; (2) Arterial stenosis or occlusion by non-atherosclerosis diseases, such as arterial dissection, moya-moya disease, vasculitis, radioactive vascular disease, or fibromuscular dysplasia; (3) Complicated with intracranial tumor, aneurysm, or intracranial arteriovenous malformation; (4) With risk factors that may lead to cardiogenic embolism, such as atrial fibrillation, left ventricular thrombosis, myocardial infarction within 6 weeks, etc. (5) Those who are pregnant, breast-feeding and planning pregnancy; (6) Patients have been included in other studies that conflict with this study. Patients were followed up at baseline, 6 month and 1 year.
Outcomes: The risk factors of intracranial and/or extracranial atherosclerosis progression were established by clinical evaluation, hematology and imaging markers. The phenotype and composition of intracranial and/or extracranial atherosclerotic plaques would be assessed. The correlation between intracranial and/or extracranial atherosclerosis and stroke events, restenosis rate and related biomarkers after endovascular treatment would be explored.
Analysis: The odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were calculated by chi square test and logistic regression analysis.