Comprehensive Evaluation

NYU Medical Center Home

NYU School of Medicine Home

Research Home

Administration

CONTACT

DIRECTORY

>	VIPS (Become a research volunteer)
>	Administration
>	IT


		E-mail Page

		Print Page

		Calendars

Intimal-Medial Thickness (IMT) Test

The identification of patients at risk for heart attack and stroke is of great concern for a physician. There are now several "imaging" tests that can supplement our ability to detect the presence of atherosclerotic plaque in the carotid and coronary arteries.

Many patients have been sent for Electron Beam Cat Scans (EBCT) of their hearts. These tests have also been referred to as "calcium scans". This technique has several notable weaknesses. Most importantly, it does not identify early plaques, which are non-calcified, and cannot be used to track a patient's progress on therapy.

On the other hand, the measurement of Intimal-Medial Thickness (IMT) in the carotid arteries (in the neck) is a painless test that utilizes ultrasound scanning to detect and quantify the amount of thickening just below the inner lining of the carotid artery.

This part of the artery is called the "Intima". The area just below it is the "Media" or muscular part of the artery. The interface of these two layers of the artery is the site at which atherosclerotic plaque first develops. An example of the location of a plaque in the carotid artery is shown in the illustration.

Although the test focuses on an easy to access neck artery, the presence of carotid plaque appears to correlate very well with coronary plaque. Several large studies have evaluated this test in patients of all ages, and have shown that increased IMT can predict risk for stroke and heart attack.

In addition, treatment with cholesterol lowering medications (such as statins) or Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) inhibitors can slow or actually partially reverse this build up as measured by IMT.

The faculty of the NYU Lipid Treatment and Research Center has been performing this procedure for several years and have found it to be extremely valuable in the evaluation and treatment of many patients.