Song P, et al. - Researchers determined the prevalence and number of people with carotid atherosclerosis (CAS) and carotid plaque (CP) in the general Chinese population by analyzing data from relevant articles identified via a search through China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodical, PubMed, Embase and Medline. They estimated the age- and gender-specific prevalence of CAS and CP using a multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression and synthesized the impacts of risk factors for CAS by a random-effects meta-analysis. Findings revealed a high prevalence of CAS and CP in China. CAS and CP creates a huge disease burden, especially in rural areas.