15289-s-bos

28 | Chapter 2 cardiovascular events (14). However, plaque volume could not be scored on the systems we used since they were not able to obtain 3D ultrasound imaging. Big inter-observer differences were not related to high C-IMT levels showing that the CHS is reliable at both low and high C-IMT. However, we measured the C-IMT between systems inhealthy subjectswith relatively lowC-IMTvalues.Therefore,wecannot exclude that higher C-IMT values would expose differences between the systems. Furthermore, healthy volunteers are also less likely to have carotid plaques. Although plaque presence in the inter-observer variability group was not significantly different, there was not a complete agreement between the two experienced observers. This emphasizes caution in interpreting and combining results on plaque presence, especially those results from inexperienced sonographers. Conclusion The portable CHS provides precise measurements of C-IMT and reliably detects carotid plaques, with a shorter acquisition time than that of the PiU. We conclude that the CHS is a rapid, reliable and precise method for assessing C-IMT and plaques, making it highly suitable for high-throughput screening and clinical use. Declaration of interest All authors declare no conflict of interest. Acknowledgement We thank Panasonic, and Philips for making the systems available to us enabling our investigator-driven project.