Aortic & peripheral vascular diseaseCross-sectional study
Cortico-limbic interactions and carotid atherosclerotic burden during chronic stress exposure
- Cross-sectional imaging study
- 18F-FDG PET/MRI
Authors' conclusion
In this study of limited size, participants with PTSD did not have higher atherosclerotic inflammation than controls. Notably, impaired cortico-limbic interactions (higher amygdala relative to vmPFC activity or disruption of their intercommunication) associated with carotid atherosclerotic burden.
Study context
- Population
- Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma-exposed controls and healthy controls; median age 37 years, 54% female
- Exposure
- PTSD vs trauma-exposed controls without PTSD and healthy controls
- PTSDn = Twenty-seven
- Trauma-exposed controlsn = 45reference
- Healthy controlsn = 22reference
- Outcome
- Atherosclerotic inflammation (18F-FDG PET TBR max) of aorta and carotids
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), spleen activity, aorta atherosclerotic burden (normalized wall index)
- Higher with PTSD
Stress-associated neural network activity (SNA) and uncinate fasciculus axonal integrity (AI)
- PTSD: higher SNA and lower AI
Carotid atherosclerotic burden (SD of wall thickness), whole cohort
- Associated positively with SNA and negatively with AI, independent of Framingham risk score
Original publication
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it