The objective of the authors is to assess the natural history of carotid artery disease and the role of carotid intervention in preventing ipsilateral stroke. The development of endovascular techniques for correction of carotid artery stenoses made this less invasive technique very popular, with an inherent risk of unregulated overuse by a variety of medical specialists, who are not always well...

Hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia are characterized by a reduction in arterial distensibility and by accelerated atherosclerosis. Whether arterial stiffening is an inherent feature of these conditions or just the consequence of the atherosclerotic clinical or subclinical lesions is not known, however. Our aim was to obtain information on this issue by directly measuring, in human...

Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) has been one widely used index of early carotid atherosclerosis. We speculated that the influence of blood pressure variability (BPV) on early carotid atherosclerosis may be varied by the location of the carotid artery and diabetes history. Thus, the goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of BPV on early arteriosclerosis progression in different segm...

Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is a procedure that has reliably decreased the risk of cerebrovascular events and death in patients with severe carotid stenosis. In this chapter, important concepts in the preoperative assessment of patients undergoing CEA will be reviewed. An overview of the clinical trials highlighting current indications will be provided, followed by a discussion of the surgical...

permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Previous studies have reported stroke magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessments that included a carotid magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition with gradient-echo (MPRAGE) sequence. The findings of these studies showed that a carotid MPRAGE-positive signal was...

BACKGROUND Little is known about patterns in the use of carotid revascularization since a 2004 Medicare national coverage decision supporting carotid artery stenting. We examined geographic variation in and predictors of carotid endarterectomy and carotid stenting. METHODS Analysis of claims from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from January 1, 2003, through December 31, 2006. Pat...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We propose to study possible differences in the associations between risk factors for cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction and stroke) and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) measurements made at 3 different levels of the carotid bifurcation. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study of a cohort of whites and blacks of both genders with a mean age of 45 yea...

The Detection of Carotid Artery Obstruction: A Correlation With A rteriography • Intravenous radioisotope arteriography, carotid compression ocular plethysmography, and supraorbital Doppler studies were more accurate than ophthalmodynamometry in the detection of the presence or absence of carotid artery obstruction in 35 patients. Abnormal results were present in patients with carotid obstructi...

The Nurse Practitioner • April 2008 43 cclusive lesions of the internal carotid artery (ICA) caused by atherosclerosis can cause embolic stroke or cerebral ischemia, which may result in significant morbidity, mortality, and long-term disability. Carotid stenosis can be accurately diagnosed by carotid duplex ultrasound imaging. Specific hemispheric symptoms related to potential embolism from a c...

The effect of intracarotid injections of ouabain (25.0 ng) or acetylstrophanthidin (1.56 tig) on feline carotid sinus baroreceptors was evaluated using an isolated perfused carotid sinus preparation. The effects of the drugs on baroreceptor activity were determined by monitoring carotid sinus nerve activity and systemic arterial blood pressure. Administration of either drug to the isolated caro...