Abstract: Objective To investigate the application of intima-media thickness（IMT） of carotid artery in diagnosis of phlegm-stasis syndrome in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases（NAFLD）. Methods The patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases were diagnosed and the intima-media thickness of carotid artery was detected by sonography. Results Out of 80 patients with NAFLD,there were 30 with Phlegm syndrome,30 with Stasis syndrome and 20 with indistinguishable syndrome based on the syndrome determination criteria of Chinese traditional medicine. The moderate to severe degree of fatty liver accounted for 88.9% and the patients with Phlegm syndrome for 83.3% in 54 patients with increased IMT of carotid artery;the waist circumference,basic mass index（BMI）,fasting blood glucose（FBG）,HOMA-IR and cholesterol increase significantly as compare to those in healthy persons（P<0.01）;IMT in patients with NAFLD were （1.19±0.75）mm,significantly higher than in control（0.71±0.25）mm（P<0.01）; Logistic regression analysis showed that the FBG（OR：5.48,95%CI：1.39~21.61）, total cholesterol （OR：1.14,95%CI：1.14~12.82）,BMI（OR：1.20,95%CI：1.02~1.42）,age（OR：1.02,95%CI：1.01~1.03） and Phlegm syndrome（OR：1.10,95%CI：1.03~1.17） were the independent risk factors for increase IMT in patients with NAFLD. Conclusions The IMT of carotid artery is closely related to the Phlegm syndrome and fatty liver degree in patients NAFLD,so it might be used as a parameter for determination of phlegm-stasis syndrome by Chinese traditional medicine.

Key words: Nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases, Intima-media thickness of carotid artery, Syndrome differentiation of TCM