Similarities and Differences Between Carotid Artery and Coronary Artery Function

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) remains one of the leading causes of mor-bidity and mortality. Strategies to predict development of CVD are therefore key in preventing and managing CVD. One stratergy in predicting CVD is by examining the role of traditional risk factors for CVD (e.g. age, sex, weight, blood pressure, blood lipids, blood glucose, smoking and physical activity). Although these measures are non-invasive and simple to perform, they provide limited in-formation of CVD prediction. Directly examining functional characteristics of arteries that are in-volved in the pathophysiological changes that contribute to the development of CVD improve predic-tion of future CVD. Nevertheless, examining the function of arteries susceptible to atherosclortic changes, such as the coronary arteries, is invasive, expensive, and associated with high risk for com-plications. More accessible arteries can be used as a surrogate measure of coronary artery function. For example, the carotid artery may be a superior surrogate measure of coronary artery function given that, the carotid artery represents a central vessel that shows similarities in vasomotor function and anatomical structure with coronary arteries. CONCLUSION: This review summarises the similarities between the carotid and coronary arteries, de-scribes how both arteries respond to specific vasoactive stimuli, and discusses if the easily assessible carotid artery can provide information about vascular function (e.g. vasomotor reactivity to sympa-thetic stimulation) which is prognostic for future cardiovascular events. Finally, the impact of older age and lifestyle interventions (e.g. exercise training) on carotid artery function will be discussed