Assessment of vascular structure by carotid intima media thickness (IMT): Carotid ultrasound to assess C-IMT will be performed by two investigators trained for this purpose before starting the study. The reliability of such recordings was evaluated before the study, using the intraclass correlation coefficient, which showed values of 0.97 (95%CI: 0.94-0.99) for intra-observer agreement on repeated measurements in 20 subjects, and 0.90 (95%CI: 0.74-0.96) for inter-observer agreement. According to the Bland-Altman analysis, the limit of inter-observer agreement was 0.02 (95% CI: −0.05-0.10), while the limit of intra-observer agreement was 0.01 (95% CI: −0.03-0.06). A Sonosite Micromax ultrasound device paired with a 5-10 MHz multi-frequency high-resolution linear transducer with Sonocal software will be used for performing automatic measurements of carotid IMT in order to optimize reproducibility. Measurements will be made of the common carotid after the examination of a 10-mm longitudinal section at a distance of 1 cm from the bifurcation, performing measurements in the anterior or proximal wall, and in the posterior or distal wall in the lateral, anterior and posterior projections, following an axis perpendicular to the artery to discriminate two lines: one for the intima-blood interface and the other for the media-adventitious interface. A total of 6 measurements will be obtained of the right carotid, with another 6 measurements of the left carotid, using average values (average carotid IMT) and maximum values (maximum carotid IMT) automatically calculated by the software [63]. The measurements will be obtained with the subject lying down, with the head extended and slightly turned opposite to the examined carotid artery. The average IMT will considered abnormal if it measured 0.90 mm, or if there will be atherosclerotic plaques with a diameter of 1.5 mm or a focal increase of 0.5 mm or 50% of the adjacent IMT [2].