Purpose: To study the effects of obesity and overweight on carotid vascular function among healthy populations by carotid ultrasound (CAU) and transcranial Doppler (TCD).
Materials and Methods: Basic clinical characteristics, CAU and TCD parameters were collected from recruited healthy individuals. Firstly, all participants were divided into three groups: normal, overweight and obese. Then, the variability of basic clinical characteristics and lipids between the three groups was calculated. Subsequently, CAU and TCD parameters were compared between the three groups. Finally, the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and neck vascular function was analyzed.
Results: A total of 613 healthy participants were included, of whom 241 were normal, 264 were overweight, and 108 were obese. Overweight and obesity significantly decreased systolic, diastolic and mean flow velocities in the basilar, vertebral and internal carotid arteries, but had no effect on pulsatility index. In addition, BMI was significantly negatively correlated with systolic, diastolic, and mean flow velocities in the basilar, vertebral, and internal carotid arteries, and remained correlated after adjusting for other factors. There was no effect of overweight and obesity on carotid plaques.
Conclusion: Our study revealed that overweight and obesity decreased carotid vascular flow velocity and showed a decreasing trend in vascular flow velocity with increasing BMI. Overweight and obesity appear to have no effect on carotid plaques.
Keywords: obesity, overweight, basilar artery, vertebral artery, internal carotid artery