Histologic characteristics of carotid artery plaque

Abstract

Fifteen patients who had undergone renal transplantation 3 months to 25 years earlier were operated on for treatment of complicated aortoiliac atherosclerosis; eight had aneurysms and seven had stenotic or obstructive lesions. Except for the first patient, operated on in 1973, in whom the kidney was protected by general hypothermia, no special measure was used to protect the kidneys. A transient increase in creatinemia occurred in 11 patients during the postoperative period, whereas creatinine values remained unchanged in the other four. All patients had regained renal function identical to the + preoperative state in less than 10 days; three of them had significant improvement as a result of correction of a lesion that was impairing renal blood flow. Results obtained in this series show that protection of the transplant during aortic surgery is not necessary, provided an adequate surgical technique is used. This technique avoids the complex methods employed in the majority of previously reported cases and appears to be a safe procedure.

Reproducibility in Ultrasonic Characterization of Carotid Plaques

“…(2) It also shows that the semiquantitative classification of the echogenicity proposed by several authors [9, 10]is not entirely satisfactory and needs to be improved. (3) The agreement in the analysis of the endoluminal surface and large recesses in carotid plaques seems fair in both of our studies.…”

“…The first five classes corresponded to the semiquantitative classification of the echogenicity proposed by previous studies [9, 10]and improved by CDFI. The reference echo levels were obtained on anatomical structures: the endoluminal circulating blood for anechogenicity, defined by CDFI, which underlines the carotid stenosis, and the intima media layer for isoechogenicity.…”

“…The reference echo levels were obtained on anatomical structures: the endoluminal circulating blood for anechogenicity, defined by CDFI, which underlines the carotid stenosis, and the intima media layer for isoechogenicity. This grading was validated against pathological data [10]and gave a satisfying reproducibility (kappa of 0.6 for 2 observers, table 1) [9]. The distribution of each class (fig.…”

Carotid Plaque Echomorphology and Serum Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Levels

“…Plaques with increased intraplaque hemorrhage and lipids are regarded as unstable, i.e. prone to rupture [19]. Such plaques indicate progressing atherosclerosis, where new vessels often present within the intima, and leukocytes enter the plaque via this route [20].…”