One hundred patients with asymptomatic carotid bruit or transient ischemic attack (TIA) underwent continuous-wave Doppler (CWD) and real time ultrasound (RTU) testing of their cervical carotid arteries. After ultrasonic studies, 51 patients also underwent bilateral carotid angiography. There was 95% agreement between CWD and angiography for the diagnosis of a significant (greater than 50%) stenosis. The RTU diagnosis of a normal or occluded vessel was correct in 100% of cases. Seven plaques appreciated on RTU may not have been large enough for detection by angiography. In this small series, ulceration confirmed pathologically was more reliably predicted by RTU than by cerebral angiography. Significant ipsilateral carotid plaques occurred more often in patients with amaurosis fugax than in patients with hemispheric TIAs. Ipsilateral plaque ulceration occurred in 50% of symptomatic carotid bruits, but in only 10% of asymptomatic carotid bruits. Plasma concentrations of total cholesterol were significantly higher in TIA patients with carotid stenosis than in controls.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The sex difference in manifestations of carotid bifurcation disease.

One would think that risk factors for transient ischemic attack (TIA) and asymptomatic carotid bruit (ACB) would be similar. In our referral population and in several previously reported cohort populations, however, men outnumber women among patients with TIA. In contrast, women outnumber men among patients with ACB. We found in two independent populations that women with ACB are up to 5.7 times less likely than men to have carotid stenosis. Thus women are more prone than men to have ACB, but their bruits much less commonly reflect carotid stenosis. Women are probably predisposed to have carotid bruit even in the absence of carotid stenosis. In our referral population of ACB, this tendency among women for carotid bruit without stenosis does not seem to be related to lower hematocrit, higher prevalence of heart murmur, constitutionally smaller carotid arteries, or differences in pulse rate or body habitus.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Declining morbidity and mortality of carotid endarterectomy. The Wake Forest University Medical Center experience.

The 30-day mortality as well as morbidity for stroke and myocardial infarction were determined by review of the charts for every carotid endarterectomy (N = 389 operations on 356 patients) performed at Wake Forest University Medical Center from 1979 through 1983 to ascertain whether the 16% morbidity and 6% mortality documented in our previous report of 1978 had changed over time. For endarterectomies performed on asymptomatic patients (n = 155), major morbidity included 2 myocardial infarctions and 1 stroke (1.9%). There were 3 fatalities--2 myocardial infarctions and 1 stroke (1.9%). For the symptomatic group (n = 234), major morbidity was 2.1%, mortality 2.6%. The combined morbidity for asymptomatic and symptomatic carotid stenosis was 2%, mortality 2.3%. Perioperative stroke rate (morbidity plus mortality) was 2.6%, 9 ipsilateral to the carotid endarterectomy, suggesting distal embolism as its probable cause. We contend that quality control measures implemented to correct the unacceptable rates reported in 1978 have contributed to dramatic and sustained reductions in complication rates.

Academic Medical Centers↗