[Atherosclerotic pathology of the aortic arch and cerebrovascular accidents].

Over the last 10 years, transoesophageal echocardiography has allowed the visualisation of the particularly frequent atheromatous involvement of the initial part of the aorta in patients suffering from cerebral as well as peripheral embolism. Recent studies have shown that atherosclerosis of the initial, precarotid, part of the aorta is both a marker of general as well as coronary atherosclerosis and an important, accident independent risk factor of recurrence of stroke. The therapy of these aortic lesions is still currently under debate and there are no published guidelines about this issue in the literature. We therefore have applied the Evidence-Based Medicine information gathering method described earlier in this journal in order to better define the best therapeutic approach of this type of pathology.