Purpose To obtain normal ranges for the inner diameters of the carotid arteries. Methods This retrospective analysis included consecutive patients with disease-free carotid arteries who had undergone 3D-DSA at two hospitals in Nanning, Guangxi, between March 2013 and March 2018. Demographic and clinical characteristics, including Essen Stroke Risk Score (ESRS), were extracted from the medical records. The 3D-DSA data were used to calculate the inner diameters of the carotid arteries. Results The analysis included 1182 patients (837 males) aged 58.81 ± 11.02 years. The inner diameters of the proximal carotid sinus (CS), CS bulge, distal CS, and common carotid artery (CCA) were larger on the right than on the left (P < 0.05). The inner diameters of the proximal CS, CS bulge, distal CS, and CCA on both sides were larger for males than females (P < 0.05). The inner diameters of the proximal CS, CS bulge, and distal CS on both sides were smaller for patients aged > 65 years than for patients aged ≤ 55 years (P < 0.05). Right CCA inner diameter did not vary with age, whereas left CCA inner diameter was larger for patients aged > 55 years than for patients aged ≤ 45 years (P < 0.05). The inner diameters of the proximal CS, CS bulge, and distal CS on both sides were smaller for patients with ESRS ≥ 3 than those with ESRS < 3 (P < 0.05). Conclusion This study provides reference values for the internal diameters of normal carotid arteries. Carotid artery diameters varied with side, sex, and age.

Background ：Epilepsy is one of great health burden in the world, deeply effects epilepsy population’s mental and physical health,some can totally recover through effective treatment, while some others are difficult to recover even have life risks when seizure attacks. In that case,we explore the effects of cerebrospinal fluid AMPA receptor levels on the clinical efficacy of lamotrigine in the treatment of epilepsy.We believe our work might have an implication in the treatment of epilepsy. Methods ：The 70 cases of epilepsy in our hospital were diagnosed and selected in this study from December 2016 to October 2018; The AMPA receptor content of patients in cerebrospinal fluid were determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay; The patients were paired into high AMPA group (n=34) and low AMPA group (n=36) according to the median value at 4.08 ng/ml. Clinical efficacy and the incidence of adverse reactions were compared between two groups. Results ：Before treatment, there was no significant difference in seizure frequency between the two groups (P>0.05); After treatment for 6 months and 12 months, the seizure frequencies of the two groups were gradually reduced (P<0.05); Moreover, the number of seizures in the low AMPA group were significantly less than those in the high AMPA group (P<0.05); The response rate of high AMPA group was 79.41%, which was significantly lower than that in the low group AMPA (χ2=6.055, P=0.048); The improvement on the efficiency of electroencephalogram in the high AMPA group was 67.65%, which was significantly lower than that in the low AMPA group (χ2=4.686, P=0.030); However, there was no significant on the incidence of adverse reactions between two groups (χ2=0.202, P=0.653). Conclusions： AMPA receptor plays an important role in the development of epilepsy and the low AMPA receptor level patients were more efficacies to the treatment of lamotrigine. Keywords：Lamotrigine; Epilepsy; AMPA receptor.

Background: Epilepsy is one of the greatest health burdens in the world, and it deeply impacts the mental and physical health of the affected population. Some individuals can completely recover through effective treatment, while others have difficulty recovering and even have mortality risks during seizure attacks. Thus, we explored the effects of cerebrospinal fluid AMPA receptor levels on the clinical efficacy of lamotrigine in epilepsy treatment. We believe our work might have implications in epilepsy treatment. Methods: Seventy cases of epilepsy diagnosed in our hospital were selected for this study from December 2016 to October 2018. The AMPA receptor content of patients in cerebrospinal fluid was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The patients were placed into a high AMPA group (n=34) and a low AMPA group (n=36) according to the median value at 4.08 ng/ml. Clinical efficacy and the incidence of adverse reactions were compared between the two groups. Results: Before treatment, there was no significant difference in seizure frequency between the two groups (P>0.05). After treatment for 6 and 12 months, the seizure frequencies of the two groups were gradually reduced (P<0.05). Moreover, the number of seizures in the low AMPA group was significantly lower than that in the high AMPA group (P<0.05). The response rate of the high AMPA group was 79.41%, which was significantly lower than that of the low group AMPA (χ2=6.055, P=0.048). The improvement in electroencephalogram in the high AMPA group was 67.65%, which was significantly lower than that in the low AMPA group (χ2=4.686, P=0.030). However, there was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups (χ2=0.202, P=0.653). Conclusions: AMPA receptor plays an important role in the development of epilepsy, and lamotrigine treatment was more efficacious in patients with low AMPA receptor levels.