North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial (NACEST) High Grade Carotid Artery Stenosis in Patients with First Ischemic Stroke

Aim: To determine the frequency of NACEST high grade carotid artery stenosis in patients with first ischemic stroke. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out at Department of Medicine, Akhtar Saeed Medical * Dental College Lahore from 1st January 2015 to 30th June 3015. Two hundred and forty patients of 18-80 years age and both sexes presenting with first ischemic stroke (sudden focal or global neurological dysfunction lasting more than 24 hours) were included. NACEST high grade stenosis was assessed by carotid Doppler ultrasound showing >= 70 % to near occlusion of internal carotid artery. Results: Two hundred and forty patients were included with mean age of 64.41 +/- 7.65 years. One hundred and seventeen patients (48.8%) were male and remaining 123 patients (51.3%) were female. In our study, 55 patients (22.9%) had NACEST High grade carotid artery stenosis out of total population of 240 patients with first ischemic stroke. There was no effect of age, gender, BMI and smoking in patients with and without stenosis. Conclusion: The frequency of NASCET high grade carotid artery stenosis in patients with first ischemic stroke is quite high (22.9%). All patients with first ischemic stroke should be screened for it.