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A Significant Risk Factor for Carotid Atherosclerosis

Robert S. Feehs, MD; W. Frederick McGuirt, MD; M. Gene Bond, PhD; Harriet L. Strickland, DVM; Timothy E. Craven, MSPH; Jeffrey B. Hiltbrand, MD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1991;117(10):1135-1137.

Abstract
• Radiation exacerbates the development of atherosclerosis in the large arteries of animals and is postulated to do likewise in human beings. To study this relationship, we used high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography to measure carotid artery wall thickness in 29 previously irradiated head and neck cancer patients and compared the results with those of nine epidemiologically similar but nonirradiated head and neck cancer patients. Maximal intima-media thickness was greater in the study group (mean, 1.28 ± SE 0.06 mm) than in the control group (mean, 0.90 ± SE 0.05 mm). Even after the effects of age, hypertension, and tobacco consumption were controlled, these differences remained statistically significant. This study suggests that irradiation may contribute to the development of more severe and extensive carotid atherosclerosis in head and neck cancer patients who receive radiation therapy.

(Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1991;117:1135-1137)

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Otolaryngology (Drs Feehs, McGuirt, and Hiltbrand), Neurobiology and Anatomy (Drs Bond and Strickland), and Public Health Sciences (Dr Craven), The Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication March 13, 1991.

Presented at the American Society of Head and Neck Surgery, April 30-May 1, 1990, Palm Beach, Fla.

Reprint requests to the Department of Otolaryngology, The Bowman Gray School of Medicine, 300 S Hawthorne Rd, Winston-Salem, NC 27103 (Dr Feehs)

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