Carotid Atherosclerosis: Why Some Patients are Symptomatic and Others Not?
type: CreativeWork
description: Occlusive vascular disease (OVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. OVD of the carotid arteries results in stroke or transient ischemic attacks. A significant number of strokes are caused by carotid artery atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis, commonly referred to as "hardening of the arteries," is a disease where there is build up of plaque in the blood vessel wall. Advanced plaque typically consists of lipid, such as cholesterol, a necrotic core and calcification, surrounded by cells and connective tissue matrix. Over the course of many years, build up of plaque material can compromise the carotid artery lumen Many studies have shown that the risk for stroke increases as the degree of luminal narrowing increases in the carotid artery. Despite the availability of quantitative diagnostic tools such as duplex ultrasound and carotid endarterectomy as the current treatment for occlusive carotid artery disease, incidence of stroke is increasing. In coronary vasculature it has been shown that plaques from symptomatic patients are friable and thus more likely to undergo plaque rupture to precipitate symptoms. If this happens in the carotid arteries, this can lead to occlusion of cerebral arteries to cause transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke. Therefore, the goal of this study was to identify morphological features of carotid plaques and determine changes in the function of vascular smooth muscle cells in the plaque at the cellular level. I proposed the hypothesis; Plaques from symptomatic patients have thinner fibrous caps overiying a iarge necrotic core, contain higher numbers of macrophages and exhibit higher teveis of apoptosis in vascuiar smooth muscie ceiis (VSMCs) than piaques from asymptomatic patients In order to test this hypothesis, carotid endarterectomy tissue specimens following surgery were obtained from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with carotid stenosis. Symptomatic patients exhibited hemispheric transient ischem…
abstract: Occlusive vascular disease (OVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. OVD of the carotid arteries results in stroke or transient ischemic attacks. A significant number of strokes are caused by carotid artery atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis, commonly referred to as "hardening of the arteries," is a disease where there is build up of plaque in the blood vessel wall. Advanced plaque typically consists of lipid, such as cholesterol, a necrotic core and calcification, surrounded by cells and connective tissue matrix. Over the course of many years, build up of plaque material can compromise the carotid artery lumen Many studies have shown that the risk for stroke increases as the degree of luminal narrowing increases in the carotid artery. Despite the availability of quantitative diagnostic tools such as duplex ultrasound and carotid endarterectomy as the current treatment for occlusive carotid artery disease, incidence of stroke is increasing. In coronary vasculature it has been shown that plaques from symptomatic patients are friable and thus more likely to undergo plaque rupture to precipitate symptoms. If this happens in the carotid arteries, this can lead to occlusion of cerebral arteries to cause transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke. Therefore, the goal of this study was to identify morphological features of carotid plaques and determine changes in the function of vascular smooth muscle cells in the plaque at the cellular level. I proposed the hypothesis; Plaques from symptomatic patients have thinner fibrous caps overiying a iarge necrotic core, contain higher numbers of macrophages and exhibit higher teveis of apoptosis in vascuiar smooth muscie ceiis (VSMCs) than piaques from asymptomatic patients In order to test this hypothesis, carotid endarterectomy tissue specimens following surgery were obtained from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with carotid stenosis. Symptomatic patients exhibited hemispheric transient ischem…
author: Dhume, Ashwini Shashikant
language: en_US
date published: 2002-12
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:49:51Z
provider: Creighton University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Creighton University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10504/68467