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Serum autoantibodies to actin are associated with carotid artery wall adventitial thickness assessed using B-mode ultrasound.

Atherosclerosis, as a chronic inflammatory condition, can be mediated by immunological reactions. Therefore, it is possibly related to a specific antigen. Because autoimmunological reactions occur during atherogenesis, it is possible that alpha-actin expression induces a specific autoimmune reaction. We determined whether the intima-media (IMT) and adventitial thickness (AT) of carotid arteries, assessed by an ultrasound method, correlate with the level of anti-actin autoantibodies (AAA) in human serum. The study involved a group of 128 patients (66 women and 62 men). The mean age was 65.0 (+/- 7.9) years. Fifty-four patients had suffered an ischaemic stroke, whereas the remaining (as controls) had no history of cerebrovascular disease. High-resolution ultrasonography was used to evaluate the IMT and AT of their common carotid arteries. The mean carotid IMT was 0.95 (+/- 0.36) mm and the mean AT was 0.94 (+/- 0.20) mm. There was a significant correlation between carotid AT and the AAA serum level (r = 0.20; p = 0.024). However, there was no association between the mean IMT and AAA serum levels in the carotid arteries (r = 0.08; p = 0.328). In this preliminary (in vivo) study, we found that the level of AAA correlated positively with ultrasonographically assessed AT during carotid atherosclerosis.