The relationship between Mediterranean diet and carotid artery disease.

Background: Mediterranean dietary nutrition is known to have protective roles in preventing cardiovascular events and atherosclerosis, but studies are limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between carotid artery stenosis (KAD) and Mediterranean diet score. Methods: The patients were divided into three groups of patients with KAD> 60% (60 patients), KAD <60% (60 patients) and had no carotid atherosclerotic disease (60 patients). Afterwards, patients with KAD were divided into two subgroups, with calcific (67 patients) and non-calcific (53 patients) according to morphological characteristics of carotid atherosclerotic plaque. Diet quality was determined by scoring method (5, 6-9 and ≥10 points) ‘Mediterranean Diet Adaptation Scale’ and compared between groups. Results: Mediterranean diet score was higher in patients without atherosclerotic disease than patients with KAD <60% (p <0,001). In addition, Mediterranean diet score was higher in patients with KAD <60 than those with KAD >60 (p <0,001). Mediterranean diet score was higher in patients with calcific atherosclerotic plaque (p <0,001). Discussion: The protective role of Mediterranean diet on the severity of carotid artery stenosis was clearly observed in our study. In addition, its potential inhibitory role on non-calcific carotid atherosclerosis, which is closely related to cerebrovascular diseases, has been demonstrated. This study, which is one of the limited studies examining the relationship between Mediterranean diet and KAD, may be useful in understanding the pathophysiology of carotid artery stenosis