Interestingly, a recent large-scale study of 302 patients with asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis based on blood chemistry analysis combined with noninvasive cervical color Doppler ultrasound imaging revealed that high CHI3L1 levels (237.08 ± 67.24 ng/mL) were an independent risk factor for unstable plaque formation138. This evidence concerns the gene CHI3L1 and carotid atherosclerosis.