Prevalence of cerebral emboli in patients with carotid artery disease

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of emboli signals and their acoustic characteristics in patients with extracranial carotid artery stenosis. Transcranial Doppler monitoring of both MCA was performed in 55 patients with a mild, moderate and severe stenosis of the carotid artery. Emboli were divided into 4 groups according to the intensitiy of the Doppler amplitude. In 43 % of our patients emboli signals intensity 9 dB or higher above spectral background intensity were detected. No emboli were detected in the mild stenosis group, while 35% of the patients had detectable emboli in the moderate group and 68 % in the severe stenosed group. The prevalence of emboli signals was significantly higher in all dB intensity groups in the severe stenosed group than in the moderate one (p<0.01). The detection of cerebral emboli may help to identify high-risk stroke patients and allow the evaluation of preventive stroke therapies.