Unstable carotid artery plaque: new insights and controversies in diagnostics and treatment

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is estimated to be the leading cause of death, globally causing 14 million deaths each year. Stroke remains a massive public health problem and there is an increasing need for better strategies for the prevention and treatment of this disease. At least 20% of ischemic strokes are thromboembolic in nature, caused by a thromboembolism from an atherosclerotic plaque at the carotid bifurcation or the internal carotid artery. Current clinical guidelines for both primary and secondary prevention of stroke in patients with carotid stenosis caused by atherosclerotic plaques remain reliant on general patient characteristics (traditional risk factors for stroke) and static measures of the degree of artery stenosis. Patients with similar traditional risk factors, however, have been found to have different risk of stroke, and it has in recent years become increasingly clear that the degree of artery stenosis alone is not the best estimation of stroke risk. There is a need for new methods for the assessment of stroke risk to improve risk prediction for the individual patient. This review aims to give an overview of new methods available for the identification of carotid plaque instability and the assessment of stroke risk.

Figure 1

Carotid ultrasound showing echolucent plaques. Plaque in the far wall of the common carotid artery (arrow pointing down) and in the near wall at the carotid bifurcation (arrow pointing up).