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Transcranial Doppler Microembolic Signal Monitoring is Useful in Diagnosis and Treatment of Carotid Artery Dissection: Two Case Reports
Author(s) -
Roy Jayanta,
Akhtar Naveed,
Watson Timothy,
Demchuk Andrew M.,
Saqqur Maher
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of neuroimaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1552-6569
pISSN - 1051-2284
DOI - 10.1111/j.1552-6569.2007.00109.x
Subject(s) - medicine , transcranial doppler , dissection (medical) , carotid artery dissection , stroke (engine) , radiology , carotid arteries , cardiology , mechanical engineering , engineering
Arterial dissection is the underlying stroke mechanism in approximately 2.5% of all strokes and the second leading cause of stroke in patients younger than 45 years of age. Controversy exists regarding the medical management of carotid dissection. Both anticoagulants and antiplatelet agents have been used with no compelling data supporting one therapy over the other. Transcranial Doppler (TCD) emboli monitoring may help in establishing the diagnosis and guide the treatment by measuring the frequency of microembolic signals (MES). We present two cases of carotid dissection where TCD monitoring for MES helped in establishing the diagnosis and proved useful in identifying that standard anticoagulation treatment was not preventing emboli. Both cases were also monitored for emboli count reduction with subsequent antiplatelet therapy.