Vascular assessment at the outpatient department

The development of a practically applicable tool in an outpatient setting could
aid in the decision process by further stratifying CVD risk. IMT-and plaque
assessment may provide such a tool. We hypothesize that in patients at
intermediate risk for CVD, as assessed by established risk calculating
algorithms, an on-site estimation of IMT and plaque will lead to more accurate
identification of vascular status through visualizing the presence or absence
of atherosclerotic damage. If so, adding actual vascular status to the outcome
of established algorithms will become an important tool in daily practice. This
is the first study evaluating atherosclerosis imaging in a specialised vascular
clinic to redefine at risk patients.

1. How accurate is IMT assessment by physicians at the vascular outpatient
clinic compared with measurement at the vascular laboratory?
2. How accurate is characterisation of severity of the plaque assessed by
physicians at the vascular outpatient clinic compared with measurement at the
vascular laboratory?

Every new patient at the vascular outpatient department will undergo regular
anamnesis and physical examination. Every patient will be asked to give a blood
sample in advance of the visit to the vascular outpatient department (which is
standard and not especially for this study).
Every new patient will undergo an ultrasound examination of the common carotid
artery to determine intima-media thicknes and the presence and aspect of plaque.
Informed consent will be asked for the performance of a second ultrasound at
the vascular outpatient department and for use of the clinical information and
ultrasound results for research.

Anamnesis, physical examination, drawing of blood and ultrasound examination at
the outpatient department will be performed as a standard procedure and is not
performed especially for this study; the ultrasound at the vascular laboratory
will be extra.