Biometric blood and primary care testing associated with carotid plaques: CHAID decision trees

Introduction: Carotid plaques increase the risk of cerebrovascular accident (CVA). Primary care testing could predict its presence. Objective: To determine the biochemical factors and primary care measurements associated with the presence of carotid plaques. Material and methods: Analytical and cross-sectional study of a secondary database of 1380 adults. The variables were: score and number of carotid plaques, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), LDL, HDL, triglycerides (TG), basal glucose, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Decisions were made through chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID), Cramer's V, Odds Ratio, prevalence ratio, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value. Results: The decision tree had a percentage of correct predictions of 70% and 79% in men and women, respectively. The characteristic associated with risk carotid plaques was HbA1c>5.80% in.