The unstable carotid plaque.

The Unstable Carotid Artery Plaque

Plasma RANTES: a molecular fingerprint of the unstable carotid plaque?

Rupture of atherosclerotic plaques in epicardial coronary or carotid arteries may lead to myocardial infarction or stroke—the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Western countries. Thus, timely detection of these unstable plaques before they rupture is a great medical need. Non-invasive plaque visualization using duplex ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging...

Evaluation of aspirin resistance and the presence of unstable carotid plaque in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy.

BACKGROUND Antiplatelet therapy using low dose acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is routinely recommended in patients undergoing surgical or endovascular treatment of carotid artery disease. Despite this treatment, a significant proportion of postoperative complications may result from inadequate response to antiplatelet therapy which may contribute to the development of unstable plaques. AIM Assess...

The symptomatic carotid plaque.

BACKGROUND The natural histories of equally severe symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid stenoses are very different, which suggests dichotomy in plaque behavior. The vascular biology of the symptomatic carotid plaque is presented in this review. SUMMARY OF REVIEW Histology studies comparing asymptomatic and symptomatic plaques were identified from MEDLINE. Reports in which stenosis severity w...

Angiographic plaque complexity: the tip of the unstable plaque iceberg.

Coronary plaque rupture is implicated in the pathogenesis of the acute coronary syndromes (1–9). Complex lesion morphology is the angiographic hallmark of these unstable ischemic syndromes, and it correlates with pathologic evidence of plaque rupture (7–9). In this issue of the Journal, Kerensky et al. (10) describe the angiographic patterns of plaque instability in 350 patients with nontransmu...