Evelina Marija Blažytė, Viltė Gabrielė Samsonė, Daina Krančiukaitė – Butylkinienė, Jūratė Dementavičienė
Abstract
In this study, we analyzed patients with coronary heart disease who underwent brain magnetic resonance tomography in order to determine cerebral vascular lesions associated with coronary heart disease and to evaluate the results. Retrospective study was carried out at Vilnius University Hospital, Santaros clinic’s. A total of 33 patients aged 50 to 80 years, suffering from coronary heart disease and heart failure (NYHA functional class 3) who underwent brain magnetic resonance tomography were selected for this study. Intracranial atherosclerotic lesions and involutional brain changes have been identified in all studied patients, highlighting the most affected intracranial arteries. These results have been compared with studies conducted in other countries. We found that 63.6 percent of studied patients had cerebral vascular lesions, 45.5 percent of patients had two or more affected arteries. The most commonly affected were a. carotis interna dextra (39.4 percent) and a. carotis interna sinistra (30.3 percent). Intracranial atherosclerosis and vascular lesions were found to be less common in European populations compared to Asians, however more research and clinical trials are needed to answer whether aggressive treatment of coronary artery disease can decrease the risk of ischemic stroke caused by intracranial atherosclerosis.
Keyword(s): intracranial artery stenosis; ischemic stroke; coronary artery disease; myocardial infarction.
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2017.037
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