Percutaneous transluminal carotid angioplasty and detachable balloon embolization in fibromuscular dysplasia.

Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD), a vascular disease of unknown etiology, most often affects the renal arteries (85% of cases) of young females [1] . However, this disease may also produce areas of stenosis at the C1-C2 vertebral level in the internal carotid artery (ICA) [1, 2]. Lesions producing symptoms have been managed by bougie dilatation, surgical endarterectomy, excision and artery reconstruction, patch angioplasty, and endarterectomy with balloon dilatation [3-5]. Our case is the second reported by us, the seventh known published instance of FMD treated by percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), and the first patient with FMD treated by detachable balloon embolization.