Recently Occluded Intracranial and Extracranial Carotid Arteries

It is now widely accepted that thrombotic coronary artery occlusion usually follows rupture of an unstable atherosclerotic plaque. The significance of such instability in arteries supplying the brain is less well appreciated. We therefore describe the clinical and pathological features of recent, symptomatic internal carotid artery occlusion to examine the pathogenetic role of plaque instability at both extracranial and intracranial sites.