Listen up, folks!

We’ve done something really tremendous here. We looked at the stiffness of plaque in the carotid artery – that’s a big deal, believe me. It’s all about preventing strokes, which are huge problems, and avoiding complications when we do surgery. We’re talking about real, important stuff.

So, we took a look at 104 patients – that’s a lot of people, all getting carotid endarterectomy at our place. And we didn’t mess around; we measured the stiffness of that plaque with a hard meter, right there in the operating room, within an hour of taking it out. Top-notch technology!

We checked out all sorts of things. Local factors, like how thick the plaque was, how much it was blocking the artery, if it had ulcers or calcification, and what it looked like on an ultrasound. And we didn’t just use any method; we used the gold standard, the European Carotid Surgery Trial method, and for good measure, the North American method too. We’re very thorough.

But we didn’t stop there. We looked at systemic factors too – age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia. We’re talking about cholesterol and triglycerides here, folks.

And guess what we found? In our multivariate analysis – that’s a fancy way of looking at all the factors together – the degree of stenosis, calcification, and the thickness of the plaque were all big players in how stiff the plaque was. But here’s the kicker: the stiffness of the plaque, it was negatively correlated with triglyceride levels. That means when triglycerides go down, plaque gets more stable. It’s fantastic.

So, what we’re saying is, if you lower those triglyceride levels, you might just stabilize that plaque. It’s a big deal, and we’ve got the numbers to prove it. Reducing high triglycerides could be key. It’s going to be great for everyone’s health. Trust me, we’re doing great work here.