Carotid endarterectomy and the risk of perioperative stroke: The importance of chronic ischaemic lesions and small vessel disease.

Background And Purpose: Perioperative stroke is a well-recognized complication of carotid endarterectomy (CEA), but well-performing prediction models do not exist for it. Our aim was to identify novel predictors for perioperative ischaemic cerebrovascular events (iCVEs), emphasizing cerebrovascular imaging and potential biomarkers for stroke in carotid stenosis (CS) patients in a well-characterized prospective CS cohort.

Methods: Helsinki Carotid Endarterectomy Study 2 is an observational prospective and consecutive cohort study of CS patients subjected to CEA during 2012-2015.

Long-term cognitive and neurovascular changes after carotid endarterectomy.

Background: Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) has been associated with both cognitive decline and improvement, but the underlying neurovascular mechanisms are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between neurovascular indices and cognitive changes after CEA.

Methods: We studied 55 patients with severe (≥70%) symptomatic or asymptomatic carotid stenosis before and six months after CEA.

Retinal vessel diameters and microvascular abnormalities in patients with carotid stenosis before and 6 months after carotid endarterectomy: A prospective study.

Purpose: To assess retinal findings in patients with severe carotid stenosis (CS) before and after carotid endarterectomy (CEA) compared to those in controls.

Methods: This study is based on 70 patients (male 81%, mean age 69) scheduled for CEA in Helsinki University Hospital and 41 healthy nonmedicated controls (male 76%, mean age 68). Our examinations included fundus photographs.

Markers of early vascular aging are not associated with cryptogenic ischemic stroke in the young: A case-control study.

Background And Purpose: We aimed to assess the association between covert atherosclerosis, arterial stiffness, and early-onset cryptogenic ischemic stroke (CIS) in a prospective case-control study.

Methods: We enrolled 123 young CIS patients (median age 41 years; 42% women) and 123 age- and sex-matched controls. Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), Augmentation Index (AIx), central pulse wave velocity (PWV), and subendocardial viability ratio (SEVR) were compared between patients and controls.

Glutamine synthetase in human carotid plaque macrophages associates with features of plaque vulnerability: An immunohistological study.

Background And Aims: Glutamine synthetase (GLUL), the sole generator of glutamine, is a metabolic nexus molecule also involved in atherosclerosis. We recently demonstrated a 2.2-fold upregulation of GLUL mRNA in stroke-causing carotid plaques when compared with plaques from asymptomatic patients.