PURPOSE OF REVIEW To describe cholesterol embolization syndrome (CES) and its risk factors, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis and treatment. RECENT FINDINGS To date, no specific diagnostic test (other than biopsy) for CES has been developed. Effective treatments for CES are yet to be developed. SUMMARY CES (also referred to as cholesterol crystal embolization, atheromatous e...

BACKGROUND Studies of aortic arch plaques with transesophageal echocardiography have demonstrated that complex aortic arch plaques (CAPs) greater than or equal to 4 mm in thickness are associated with ischemic stroke. Recent studies have demonstrated that the morphological features of plaques may aid in the identification of aortic plaques that are more likely to be associated with embolic stro...

Eighty-five patients with retinal emboli, visible ophthalmoscopically, were studied retrospectively. All the patients had presented with transient or permanent visual loss. Follow up from the time of presentation was one year to 12 years with a mean of 4.5 years. Life expectancy in the 58 medically treated patients who presented with cholesterol emboli was significantly reduced (p = 0.028). Str...

The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025-729X 1 July 2002 177 1 43-44 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2002 www.mja.com.au Lessons from Practice TRANSIENT CORTICAL BLINDNESS related to coronary angiography was first reported in 1970.1 Since then there have been fewer than two dozen cases recorded, some of which include angiography of coronary bypass grafts.2-5 This is a rare neurological co...

OBJECTIVE Vision loss and ischaemic stroke are feared complications in GCA. We investigated how platelet count and size and platelet inhibition with ASA relate to ischaemic complications in patients with GCA. METHODS Charts of patients with GCA were retrospectively analysed. Jaw claudication, amaurosis fugax, blurred vision, ischaemic stroke and permanent visual loss were classified as 'ischa...

Stroke remains an exceedingly incident and prevalent public health burden across the globe, with an estimated 16 million new strokes per annum and prevalence over 60 million, and extracranial internal carotid artery atherosclerotic disease is an important risk factor for stroke. Randomized trials of surgical treatment were conducted (North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial, Euro...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Atherosclerotic carotid plaque ulceration is considered a marker of previous plaque rupture and subsequent thromboembolism. It can be accurately detected with multidetector CTA. We hypothesized that atherosclerotic plaque ulceration is associated with nonlacunar ischemic stroke rather than lacunar stroke. METHODS Prospectively, 750 consecutive patients with transient is...

The extraction of multiple features from highresolution ultrasound images of atherosclerotic carotid plaques characterizing the plaque morphology and structure can be used for the retrieval of similar plaques and the identification of individuals with asymptomatic carotid stenosis at risk of stroke. The objective of this work was to develop a computer aided system that will facilitate the autom...

The aim of this study is to propose a suitable and reliable system for better diagnosis and treatment of carotid diseases. In this study, Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) system has been proposed for classifying carotid artery plaques using Contourlet features. Carotid images have been acquired for 124 subjects with symptoms (Amaurosis Fugax, Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack) and 133 subjects ...

A multicenter retrospective audit of carotid endarterectomies performed during 1981 was completed with 46 institutions contributing 3,328 cases. Overall, there was a 2.5% risk of transient neurological dysfunction following surgery and a 6% risk of stroke or death. The intra-institutional combined major morbidity and mortality varied from 21% to 0. Those institutions with greater than 700 beds ...