Association between coronary ischemia and carotid stenosis

There are inconclusive data about the association between coronary and carotid artery disease. In this study we evaluated 205 patients (141 male, 64 female) who had stress myocardial perfusion test (pharmacologic or exercise) and carotid duplex within 6 months of each other. Seventy patients had coronary ischemia and twenty had carotid stenosis. Ten patients had both coronary ischemia and carotid stenosis. Among patients with coronary ischemia 14% had carotid stenosis, but only 7% of patients without coronary ischemia had carotid stenosis. Although this relationship has potential clinical relevance, it was not statistically significant (P = 0.138). Because the sample size was too small for reliable statistical analysis, we are in the process of increasing the number of patients.