What is the best treatment for carotid artery stenosis?

Neuro Vascular System I (with aneurysm)

Carotid artery is one of the main arteries supplying blood to the brain, the left and right sides of the neck each have a, when it appears different degrees of stenosis, the brain will also appear different degrees of ischemia, mainly manifested as: blurred vision, dizziness, headache, memory loss, and even syncope, sudden blindness and others.

What causes carotid artery stenosis?

With the increase of age, blood vessels are also aging, too much lipids in the blood flow will be deposited under the intima of the artery, and cause thrombosis and intima hyperplasia, the formation of atherosclerotic plaque, resulting in vascular stenosis.

Carotid artery stenosis refers to the narrowing of the lumen of the major arteries in the neck (common carotid artery and internal carotid artery) due to plaque accumulation in the blood, and the brain can not get normal blood supply, resulting in stroke or transient ischemic attack.

Under the influence of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, unreasonable eating habits, smoking and drinking, emotional stress and other factors, with the development of the lesions, part of the plaque gradually enters the lumen and causes lumen stenosis.

There are three commonly used methods for diagnosing carotid artery stenosis in clinic:

(1) Carotid artery vascular ultrasonography: it can check whether there is carotid artery stenosis and the degree of stenosis.

(2)Imaging examination: cervical vascular CTA, MAR and other non-invasive examination.

(3)Cerebral angiography can accurately assess the severity of carotid artery stenosis. DSA examination can help to observe the type of aortic arch, the nature of carotid stenosis lesions (such as stenosis site, stenosis degree, overall plaque shape, plaque ulcer or not), and the integrity of the contralateral carotid artery, vertebral artery, and intracranial circle of Willis.

According to angiography, the stenosis degree of internal carotid artery was divided into 4 grades: (1) mild stenosis: < 30%; (2) Moderate stenosis: 30%-69%; (3) Severe stenosis: 70%~99%; (4) Complete occlusion: > 99%.

What are the treatment methods of carotid artery stenosis?

Invasive treatment: carotid endarterectomy and carotid artery stent.

Noninvasive treatment: medication.