Intimal plus medial thickness (IMT) of common carotid artery was measured with an ultrasonographic unit of high resolving power, in the group of 22 children suffering from insulin-dependent diabetes and in the group of healthy children selected according to age and sex. The obtained IMT values were significantly higher in the group of children with diabetes. It was found that IMT values increased with age of patients and that higher values were typical for boys in both groups. Diabetic children demonstrated a positive correlation between I-M complex thickness and patients' age at the time of the disease onset and a negative correlation between I-M complex thickness and the level of HDL-cholesterol. In children with diabetes we did not find any correlation between IMT value and disease duration, cholesterol and triglycerides level in blood serum and the degree of metabolic compensation. We did not observe a positive influence of intensive insulin therapy upon IMT values. IMT value for common carotid arteries, obtained through non-invasive techniques seems to be an important marker of the development of arterial vessels atherosclerosis, also in children.

Keywords: common carotid artery, B-mode ultrasonography, insulin-dependent diabetes, atherosclerosis, children