BACKGROUND Cardiac catheterization may cause retinal embolization, a risk factor for cerebrovascular emboli and stroke. We describe the incidence of clinically silent and apparent retinal emboli following diagnostic and interventional coronary catheterization and associated risk factors. METHODS Three hundred selected patients attending a tertiary referral center for diagnostic and therapeuti...

OBJECTIVES This study examined myocardial microvascular emboli and obstruction, and related these to plaque in the epicardial coronary arteries supplying the affected microvessels. BACKGROUND Epicardial coronary thrombosis often causes microemboli and microvascular obstruction. The consequences of myocardial microvessel obstruction and myocyte necrosis are substantial, yet histopathologic cha...

The mechanism for the preferential distribution of emboli to cerebral arterial borderzone regions, known to cause some watershed infarcts was studied. We hypothesized that emboli of a specific size range are selectively directed to the arterial borderzones due to the tendency of emboli to bypass the small arterial branches which emerge proximal to major borderzones. To test this hypothesis we p...

To determine the accuracy and limitations of Xe-133 ventilation and Tc-99m perfusion lung images (V-P images) in detecting pulmonary emboli (PE), these studies were performed in 23 dogs after experimental production of PE by a modified Wessler technique. Fourteen of the animals also underwent selective pulmonary angiography. Xenon-133 abnormalities were seen immediately after embolization in tw...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Many patients who undergo cardiac surgery assisted with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) experience cerebral injury, and microemboli are thought to play a role. Because an increased duration of CPB is associated with an increased risk of subsequent cerebral dysfunction, we investigated whether cerebral microemboli were also more numerous with a longer duration of CPB. METHO...

We report a patient with moderate aortic stenosis who had two episodes of calcium embolus to the left popliteal artery within ten months. This case suggests that calcium emboli can be recurrent and that major calcium emboli should warrant consideration of valve replacement, even in patients with mild aortic stenosis.

Tumour emboli from an endocardial metastasis of an endometrial stromal sarcoma caused recurrent and ultimately fatal strokes in a woman of 40. Endocardial metastases are rare. They are known to embolise to the pulmonary and systemic arteries but not to cause recurrent cerebral emboli.

INTRODUCTION The specific protein composition of stroke-causing emboli is unknown. Because ischemic stroke has a varied etiology, it is possible that the composition of the thrombus from which an embolus originated will have distinctive molecular characteristics reflective of the underlying pathophysiology. We used mass spectrometry to evaluate the protein composition of retrieved emboli from p...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The goal of this study was to assess the first multifrequency transcranial Doppler system specially developed for online automatic detection of cerebral microemboli. METHODS The multifrequency Doppler instrumentation insonates simultaneously with 2.0- and 2.5-MHz frequencies. The detection threshold for embolus detection used in this study was a relative Doppler energy ...