Symptomatic carotid plaques most often rupture close to the bifurcation.
Blood cadmium is associated with CD68 stained areas close to the bifurcation.
Cadmium is unrelated to CD14 stained areas as a measure of macrophage activation.
Cadmium exposure is associated with accumulation of pro-inflammatory macrophages.
These data add to current knowledge of the pro-atherogenic effect of cadmium.