Factors Associated with Severe Carotid Artery Stenosis in a Population with One of the Highest Incidences of Ischemic Stroke in Europe - Single National Center Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Despite significant advances in its prevention and acute-phase treatment, stroke is still one of the leading causes of disability and death worldwide. Ischemic stroke accounts for 80 to 87% of all strokes, with 15-30% of cases being caused by extracranial carotid artery (CA) stenosis. Methods: This is an observational, cross-sectional, single-center, prospective, registry-based study. The current research presents the preliminary results after analyzing the demographic features, biological data, and cardio- and cerebro-vascular risk factors of the first 74 patients included in the first "Romanian registry for cervical and cerebral arterial stenosis." Results: In our group of patients, the severity of carotid artery stenosis was related to fibrinogen, total cholesterol, and triglyceride blood levels. Moreover, patients who underwent carotid artery stenosis were more prone to having peri-procedural complications if they had a low blood platelet count. Concerning the associated pathologies of patients with severe carotid atheromatosis, the risk of having lower cognitive abilities was higher in subjects with atrial fibrillation, regardless of the severity of carotid artery stenosis. Conclusions: The presented study brings essential information about a population more prone to cerebral ischemic events than that of most other countries. All data obtained until this moment and which will further result from analyzing the clinical, demographic, and biological features of patients included in this registry should be used for implementing populational strategies for preventing further strokes.

TABLE 1.

Blood tests included in the registry for each patient

TABLE 2.

Descriptive data – differences between patients with/and without a history of stroke

FIGURE 1.

Periand post-procedural complications among studied patients

TABLE 3.

Pearson correlation for CAS periprocedural complications

TABLE 4.

Logistic regression predicting the likelihood of developing complications during/after CAS based on hemoglobin, platelet no., EGF, fibrinogen, total cholesterol, and triglycerides

TABLE 5.

Multiple regression results for CAS severity

TABLE 6.

Multiple regression results for MMSE score