Comparative Study between Carotid Artery Stenting and Drug Treatment

Objective To evaluate the efficiency and safety of drug treatment and carotid artery stenting(CAS)in patients with carotid stenosis.Methods From Dec 2003 to March 2006,21 patients with carotid artery stenosis were treated with CAS.All the degrees of stenosis were above 50% by the method of North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial(NASCET).For all the patients,antiplatelet therapy was performed perioperatively.Fifty-three patients were treated simply with drugs and all the patients were followed up for 6 to 28 months.Results The procedures were totally successful in 21 patients,and all the degrees of stenosis after CAS were less than 30%.3 patients with transient bradycardia,and hypotension and 2 patients with distal angiospasm of internal carotid artery were found during the operations.Neither occurrence of new stroke nor recurrence of carotid artery stenosis by Doppler ultrasonography was found in CAS group.In the drug treatment group,5 patients were found occurrence of new stroke and 14 patients with recurrence of carotid artery stenosis including 2 patients with occlusion of internal carotid artery.Conclusion Carotid angioplasty and stenting is a potential valuable and safe way for the treatment of carotid artery stenosis.The short-term outcome is satisfactory.