T. Rundek
Miller School of Medicine University of Miami – Miami, USA

Carotid atherosclerotic disease plays a large role in the etiology of stroke. B-mode carotid ultrasound has been widely used to detect subclinical carotid atherosclerosis by quantifying carotid intima–media thickness (cIMT) and carotid plaque (CP). Both cIMT and CP have been accepted surrogate imaging biomarkers of subclinical atherosclerosis until recently when it became increasingly clear that cIMT and CP may be genetically and biologically distinct atherosclerotic phenotypes with evidence of heterogeneous etiology. In addition, carotid atherosclerotic plaque burden, defined as the