Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of patients

	N(%) or mean (SD)
Total	N = 186
Age	72.6 (8.6)
Gender
Male	131 (70.4 %)
Female	55 (29.6 %)
Cerebrovascular disease
Symptomatic patients	74 (39.8 %)
Ipsilateral major stroke	44 (23.7 %)
TIA	30 (16.1 %)
Asymptomatic patients	112 (60.2 %)
Risk factors
Hypertension AHA [27]	162 (87.1 %)
Hypertension ESC [28]	112 (60.2 %)
Diabetes	80 (43.0 %)
Smoking habit	40 (21.5 %)
Hypercholesterolemia	29 (15.6 %)
Hypertriglyceridemia	70 (37.6 %)
Low-HDL	86 (46.2 %)
High LDL-C	71 (38.2 %)
IRC	56 (30.1 %)
Metabolic syndrome	85 (45.7 %)
Drugs
Statins	128 (68.8 %)
Anti-hypertensive drugs	153 (82.3 %)
Associated vascular disease
Acute cardiovascular disease	45 (24.2 %)
Previous myocardial infarction	37 (19.9 %)
Unstable angina	8 (4.3 %)
Peripheral arterial disease	61 (32.8 %)
Aortic aneurysm	11 (5.9 %)
Histological type of carotid plaque
Stable plaques	104 (55.9 %)
Fibroatheromata	71 (38.2 %)
Fibrocalcific	33 (17.7 %)
Unstable plaques	82 (44.1 %)
Thrombotic plaque	48 (25.8 %)
With a thrombus in organization	16 (8.6 %)
TCFA	16 (8.6 %)
Calcified nodule	2 (1.1 %)