Nonstenotic carotid plaque on CT angiography in patients with cryptogenic stroke.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine whether large (≥3 mm thick) but nonstenotic (<50%) carotid artery atherosclerotic plaque predominantly occurs ipsilateral rather than contralateral to cryptogenic stroke.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional observational study. Using a stroke registry, we identified consecutive patients with anterior circulation embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS). Using CT angiography, we measured carotid plaque size (thickness, mm) and carotid artery stenosis (North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial method) for each patient. We dichotomized plaque size at several predefined thresholds and calculated the frequency of plaque size above each threshold ipsilateral vs contralateral to stroke.

Results

We included 85 patients with ESUS. Plaque

SUBMITTER: Coutinho JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4999163 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature