{"doi":"10.1161/jaha.124.034821","title":"Carotid Artery Wall Echogenicity Measured by Gray Scale Median of the Intima‐Media Complex From Childhood to Young Adulthood","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Echogenicity of the carotid arterial wall, measured by gray scale median of the intima-media complex (IM-GSM), is a novel subclinical atherosclerosis marker with lower values indicating greater lipid deposition. Our longitudinal study investigated IM-GSM from childhood to adulthood and its associated risk factors. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 240 participants from the Southern California CHS (Children's Health Study) underwent carotid artery ultrasounds in 2008 (mean age±SD): (11.2±0.6 years), and again around 2022 (24.2±1.6 years) to assess IM-GSM, carotid artery intima-media thickness, and carotid artery distensibility. Questionnaires and anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were completed by participants at both times. Mean and SD of IM-GSM were 108.2±24.6 in childhood and 75.6±15.8 in adulthood. Each 1-year increase in age was associated with -2.52 change in IM-GSM (95% CI, -2.76 to -2.27). Childhood and adulthood IM-GSMs were highly correlated (β=0.13 [95% CI, 0.05-0.22]). In childhood, Hispanic ethnicity, lower parental education levels and prenatal father smoking were significantly associated with lower IM-GSM. In adulthood, higher systolic blood pressure, carotid artery intima-media thickness, hypertension, and lower distensibility were significantly associated with lower IM-GSM. Weight status exhibited a consistent association with both childhood and adulthood IM-GSM. During the transition from childhood to adulthood, individuals who shifted from normal weight to overweight/obese or normal blood pressure to hypertension or experienced an increase in carotid artery intima-media thickness displayed lower levels of IM-GSM in adulthood. CONCLUSIONS: IM-GSM decreases with age. Maintaining healthy weight and blood pressure levels in children could potentially aid in preventing subclinical atherosclerosis.","journal":"Journal of the American Heart Association","year":2024,"id":501828,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7928,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1039075,"name":"Xinci Chen","orcid":"0009-0002-4619-7892","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":758795,"name":"Zhongzheng Niu","orcid":"0000-0002-7168-8581","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":520929,"name":"Roksana Karim","orcid":"0000-0003-1761-153X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":907352,"name":"W. James Gauderman","orcid":"0000-0002-6626-9091","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":240002,"name":"Rob McConnell","orcid":"0000-0001-5243-6410","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1252816,"name":"M. Yan","orcid":"0009-0004-5601-4003","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1234271,"name":"Lora Whitfield","orcid":"0009-0008-4145-6684","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1234272,"name":"Y. Li","orcid":"0009-0003-7648-5833","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":307233,"name":"Theresa M. Bastain","orcid":"0000-0002-0029-5641","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":278838,"name":"Carrie V. Breton","orcid":"0000-0002-6082-4066","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":128448,"name":"HOWARD N. HODIS","orcid":null,"position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":307228,"name":"Shohreh F. Farzan","orcid":"0000-0001-9897-3692","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":722225,"name":"Fangqi Guo","orcid":"0000-0002-6553-9328","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":40,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:10:19.647285Z","pmid":"39101497","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}