Incidence of asymptomatic extracranial arterial disease.

Abstract

Investigations of the incidence and the extent of the asymptomatic early stages of extracranial arterial disease (EAD) have been restricted for methodical reasons. Direct Continuous Wave-Doppler examination has given highly accurate results in the location and correct estimation of the degree of EAD both for the carotid (97%) and the vertebral arteries (90%), as shown from a detailed comparison with carotid (n = 604) and vertebral (n = 426) angiograms. Compared with this degree of reliability, the validity of normal auscultation for the diagnosis of EAD is shown to be poor: if bruits are taken as the only signs of associated EAD in patients with systemic atherosclerosis, only 27.6% in a group of 123 patients would have been correctly diagnosed. This parallels the number of false-positives (22.6%) in patients with normal results. The frequency and degree of EAD was studied by the use of direct Doppler examination in 2009 neurologically asymptomatic patients admitted either with severe vascular (n = 375) or coronary atherosclerosis (n = 262) or with high-risk factors (n = 1370). The frequency was significantly higher (32.8%) in patients with peripheral vascular disease than in those with coronary artery disease (6.8%) and in risk-factor patients (5.9%). The combination and degree of vessel involvement are presented in detail and their possible prognostic significance discussed.

The correlation between the severity of peripheral arterial disease and carotid occlusive disease

“…Earlier studies have shown a strong association between the prevalence of PAD and COD. 1,2,[6][7][8][9]11,12 Our study was consistent with these earlier prevalence studies because some disease was found at most of our patients' PAD and COD evaluations suggesting that there is a strong correlation between the prevalence of PAD and COD despite a weaker severity correlation. In summary, our study extended previous studies by looking at the correlation between the severity of PAD and COD.…”

“…This is readily apparent from the fact that most of our patients had some disease at their evaluations for PAD and COD and supports the results of many earlier studies. 1,2,[6][7][8][9]11,12 Therefore, the correlation between disease severity may only be modest, but the correlation between prevalence of disease is significant.…”

Ultrasonic duplex scanning in atherosclerotic disease of the innominate, subclavian and vertebral arteries. A comparative study with angiography

“…A subclavian steal phenonemon can be reliably diagnosed by this non-invasive technique, but in contrast to the vertebral system a differentiation of the underlying vascular disease is not possible. The main problems are the investigation of the proximal part of the vertebral artery and the differentiation of severe stenosis, occlusion, hypoplasia and aplasia (von Reutern et al, 1976, Hennerici et al, 1981. Ultrasonic duplex scanning with spectral analysis of the Doppler signal is a very reliable technique for the detection of carotid atherosclerosis (Fell et al, 1981;Breslau, 1982;Ackerstaff et al, 1982).…”

Study of biochemical parameters of atherosclerosis male patients in tertiary care hospital of Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, India

“…Current knowledge on incidence and course of atherosclerosis mainly originates from patient based angiographic and Doppler followup evaluations which for methodological reasons are restricted to severe atherosclerosis. [20][21][22][23] Observation that specific ante mortem risk factors such as elevations in body-mass index, systolic blood pressure, serum LDL cholesterol, triglyceride concentration and cigarette smoking are significantly related to the extent of atherosclerotic lesions in young people. 24 In our study (Table 1) active and passive smoking are considered to be important risk factors for atherosclerotic disease in men.…”