Treating Intercranial Arterial Stenosis

(Brain scans of a pt with a Wingspan stent) (A Wingspan Stent)

In recent years, many advancements have been made toward treating atherosclorosis, but there is still much debate regarding treatment of patients with cranial atherosclorosis. Patients with cranial athersclorosis have a high potential for devoloping stroke, and patients with cranial atherosclorosis who have medical history of stroke are more likely to have a reoccurant stroke than anyone else. The Wingspan stent developed by Boston Scientific is the only stent approved by the FDA on patients with cranial atherosclorosis. Researchers in this article are studying the affects of agressive medical treatment vs. stenting in patients with cranial atherosclorosis. The medical treatment included a daily dose of asprin and clopidogrel the results from these patients were compared against the results from those who had the PTAS procedure done. The results of the study were rather suprising. Researchers found that patient who received the medical treatment along with a Wingspan stent were less likely to have reoccurring symptoms than the patients in the PTAS group.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1105335?query=featured_home#t=articleTop