Young smoker “ABCD” vascular assessment: a four-step ultrasound examination for detecting peripheral, extra and intra-cranial early arterial damage

Table 2 the “ABCD” assessment in the study population setting

ABCD PARAMETERS	NON-SMOKERS	SMOKERS	p
ABCD PARAMETERS	(n = 43)	(n = 38)	p
ABI	1.1 ± 0.05	1.1 ± 0.8	ns
BHI baseline (MCA)	1.5 (0.3)	1.2 (0.1)	<0.01
BHI 1 min after smoking (MCA)	nd	1 ± 0.2	nd
BHI 10 min after smoking (MCA)	nd	1.1 ± 0.1	nd
C-IMT (mean, mm)	0.4 (0.06)	0.65 (0.09)	<0.01
C-IMT (max, mm)	0.53 (0.01)	0.75 (0.5)	<0.01
Diameter of the abdominal aorta (mm)	15 ± 2	15 ± 1	ns

ABI ankle-brachial index; BHI breath holding index; MCA middle cerebral artery; CIMT carotid intima media thickness; nd, not done; ns, not significantly different
Normally distributed continuous variables (ABI and Diameter of the abdominal aorta) are expressed as mean ± SD while non-normally distributed variables (BHI, C-IMT mean and max) are presented as median and interquartile range (IQR)

ISSN: 1471-2261