Background: Internal carotid artery high-grade stenosis is a major cause of stroke. Carotid angioplasty and stenting (CAS) is a reasonable approach for treatment of certain patients. Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) evaluated through breath holding index test can assess the outcome following CAS. Aim: Evaluate changes in CVR before and after CAS. Subjects and method: Thirty-two patients with 35 symptomatic internal carotid artery high-grade stenosis (> 70%) were enrolled by the mean of ultrasound screening. Breath holding index test was done using transcranial Doppler ultrasound before and after CAS. Results: The study includes 32 patients (22 males and 10 females). The mean age was 61.91 ± 6.59 years. The main risk factor was hypertension (75.3%). All patients showed an increase in mean flow velocity and BHI following CAS (P < 0.001) on both ipsilateral and contralateral side. Both groups (70-90% and > 90% stenosis) showed similar improvement of CVR. Conclusion: CAS improves CVR in all high grades of internal carotid artery stenosis.
We report a case of a young male patient suffering from congenital AntiThrombin III (AT III) deficiency, presented with four major thrombotic events. These events were acute coronary syndrome (Non-ST elevation myocardial infarction), cerebral infarction, peripheral acute upper limb (UL) ischemia and bilateral extensive deep venous thrombosis. The latter two developed despite that the patient was receiving full anticoagulation therapy. His International normalized ratio (INR) was 2.5. Eventually, the patient developed pulmonary embolism and died. He had a prominent family history of thrombotic events. Screening for AT III deficiency in young patients with thrombotic event (thrombophilia) is essential especially those having family history of the latter. This is justified as thrombotic events may occur in up to 80% of these patients. Our patient with 4 major thrombotic events ending in fatality in less than 1 month deserves the nomenclature.
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