History of stroke was associated with ultrasound-defined carotid plaque instability, whereas CRP and eGFR were not independently associated after multivariable adjustment, and adding them to clinical variables provided minimal incremental discrimination.
In a single-center retrospective cross-sectional cohort of 361 patients who underwent carotid ultrasonography, 50 had unstable plaques and 311 had stable plaques.
A history of stroke was more common in patients with unstable plaques than in those with stable plaques.
CRP levels were higher in the unstable-plaque group, whereas eGFR did not differ between groups.
In the four system-specific multivariable models (adjusted for age, sex, hypertension, and diabetes), no biomarker was independently associated with plaque instability.
In the integrated model, history of stroke was independently associated with plaque instability, while CRP and eGFR were not.
Adding CRP and eGFR to clinical covariates yielded minimal incremental discrimination for plaque instability.
Because of the cross-sectional design, the findings represent associations rather than temporal or causal relationships.
This study looked at 361 patients who had carotid artery ultrasound scans, to see whether blood markers of inflammation, clotting, metabolism, and kidney function were linked to unstable plaque in the neck arteries. Unstable plaques are thought to be more likely to cause strokes. Fifty patients had unstable plaques and 311 had stable ones. Patients with unstable plaques were more likely to have had a stroke before. C-reactive protein (CRP, an inflammation marker) was higher in the unstable-plaque group in a simple comparison, but after accounting for age, sex, high blood pressure, and diabetes, neither CRP nor kidney function (eGFR) was independently linked to unstable plaque. A prior stroke remained associated, with about 2.5 times the odds of having an unstable plaque. Adding CRP and eGFR to a model using clinical factors barely improved its ability to tell unstable from stable plaques (AUC 0.704 vs 0.709). This research suggests that, in this group, routine blood markers like CRP and eGFR added little to identifying ultrasound-defined unstable plaque beyond basic clinical information. The study was small, from one center, had few unstable plaque cases, and captured a single point in time, so it cannot show cause and effect or whether these markers predict future events.
Xie C, Hong J, Zhang M, Peng Y, Huang Y. (2026). Integrative analysis of systemic biomarkers and carotid plaque instability in patients with atherosclerosis: A retrospective cross-sectional study.. Science progress. https://doi.org/10.1177/00368504261499593