The research included 2,189 men and women who were part in the multi-ethnic Northern Manhattan Study, in New York City.
Using ultrasound, the researchers found that 58 percent of the participants had carotid artery plaque, and the maximum carotid plaque thickness is more than 1.9 millimeters of plaque.
After a follow-up of 6.9 years, 121 of the participants had ischemic stroke, 118 had myocardial infarction, and 166 had died of other vascular causes.
Hispanics with the thickest amounts of carotid artery plaque were three to four times more likely to suffer a stroke, heart attack, or some other type of vascular event than Hispanics with no carotid artery plaque.
"These results are important for developing stroke and vascular prevention programs for all, but also for certain ethnic groups such as Hispanics, who represent the fastest growing minority population in the U.S.," study author Dr. Tatjana Rundek, of the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami in Florida, said in a prepared statement.
Rundek added that more research is needed to determine why Hispanics with even small amount of carotid plaque are also susceptible to vascular events. The study showed that ultrasound offers doctors simple method of knowing the patient's stoke risk and guiding stroke-prevention treatments.
"It is a non-invasive marker that can help doctors identify the beginning stages of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, that is also associated with increased risk of stroke," Rundek said.
The study is published in the March 19 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal on the American Academy of Neurology.
