Crouse score (carotid plaque score)

Method

Sum of the maximum heights of every discrete carotid plaque identified on B-mode ultrasound of both carotid arteries, excluding smooth arterial wall.

The method is part of the endpoint identity. Studies measuring the same quantity by a different method are held as separate endpoints.

Notes

Will be confused with carotid intima-media thickness -- both are millimetre measures read from the same scan, but this one sums focal lesion heights while IMT measures diffuse wall thickening in lesion-free segments, and a patient can score high here with an entirely normal IMT. Also distinct from the count of morphologically unstable lesions, which ignores size: one large lesion and three small ones can produce identical sums with very different counts, and the two endpoints can move in opposite directions in the same patient.