Statin Treatment Is Associated with Reduction in Serum Levels of Receptor Activator of NF-κB Ligand and Neutrophil Activation in Patients with Severe Carotid Stenosis

Table 6

Spearman rank correlation between serum RANKL/OPG ratio and systemic and intraplaque parameters (upstream or downstream regions) of vulnerability.

	Spearman’s correlation coefficient (𝑟)	𝑃-value
Serum RANKL/OPG ratio
Systemic
CRP, mg/L	0.3549	0.0311
MPO, ng/mL	0.6036	0.0001
Neutrophil elastase, ng/mL	0.5223	0.0009
MMP-8, ng/mL	0.0436	0.7977
MMP-9, ng/mL	0.3106	0.0614
Pro-MMP-9 activity, ng/mL	0.3248	0.0498
Intraplaque upstream
versus lipids	−0.3456	0.0489
versus total collagen	0.0077	0.9661
versus collagen I	0.0879	0.6267
versus collagen III	0.0906	0.6162
versus SMCs	−0.0832	0.6452
versus macrophages	−0.0552	0.7605
versus neutrophils	0.1180	0.5132
versus MMP-9	−0.2647	0.1366
Intraplaque downstream
versus lipids	−0.0946	0.5947
versus total collagen	−0.1383	0.4355
versus collagen I	−0.1636	0.3551
versus collagen III	−0.0805	0.6508
versus SMCs	−0.0118	0.9473
versus macrophages	0.2461	0.1605
versus neutrophils	0.3756	0.0285
versus MMP-9	0.3510	0.0418