BACKGROUND There is no standard endovascular treatment for extracranial internal carotid artery dissecting aneurysms.In the past,stent-graft isolation and stent-assisted coil embolization were commonly used for wide-n...BACKGROUND There is no standard endovascular treatment for extracranial internal carotid artery dissecting aneurysms.In the past,stent-graft isolation and stent-assisted coil embolization were commonly used for wide-necked and fusiform aneurysms.Here,we present two cases of extracranial internal carotid artery dissecting aneurysms treated successfully using the SUPERA stent.CASE SUMMARY Case 1 was a 57-year-old male patient with sudden right limb weakness and vague speech and diagnosed with cerebral infarction in February 2019.Cervical computed tomographic angiography(CTA)revealed left internal carotid artery dissection with stenosis.CTA at 2 mo showed an eccentric wide-necked dissecting aneurysm(5 mm×5 mm×12 mm,10-mm neck)that was enlarged at 4 mo(7 mm×6 mm×12 mm,11-mm neck).The patient underwent SUPERA stent implantation.His condition was stable in July 2020.Case 2 was a 57-year-old man who suddenly felt dizzy and developed unsteady walking in November 2019.Cervical CTA suggested right internal carotid artery dissecting aneurysm(11 mm×9 mm×31 mm)complicated with severe lumen stenosis(95%).The patient underwent SUPERA stent implantation.The patient had no residual symptoms and was stable in December 2020.CONCLUSION SUPERA stent implantation might achieve good results in treating wide-necked or long fusiform internal carotid artery dissecting aneurysms.展开更多
Objective Intracranial internal carotid artery dissection is a rare case. The purpose of this study was to report the treatment of intracranial internal carotid dissection and the radiologic and clinical result.Materi...Objective Intracranial internal carotid artery dissection is a rare case. The purpose of this study was to report the treatment of intracranial internal carotid dissection and the radiologic and clinical result.Material And Method A 67 year-old female patient admitted for lower leg fracture at the outside university hospital. After 6 days later, she presented with left hemiparesis, verbal disturbance and visual disturbance. She transferred to our hospital and evaluated with MRI and Angiography. Angiography show stenosis with ulceration and pseudoaneurysm at the internal carotid artery. The stenosis rate was 63%. At the lesion, ophthalmic artery was poor visualized. Results The intracranial lesion was treated with angioplasty and stenting. After stenting, angiography showed good ophthalmic artery flow. Patients improved visual acuity just after stenting. Conclusions Intracranial angioplasty and stenting will be a good treatment option in a highly selected case.展开更多
Background: To compare the neuropsychological consequences after carotid artery stenting (CAS) and extracranial-intracranial by-pass (EC-IC by-pass). Methods: A total of 43 patients referred to CAS, 32 patients referr...Background: To compare the neuropsychological consequences after carotid artery stenting (CAS) and extracranial-intracranial by-pass (EC-IC by-pass). Methods: A total of 43 patients referred to CAS, 32 patients referred to EC-IC by-pass and 43 control subjects were enrolled in the study. Neuropsychologic testing was performed before and three months after procedure. A paired Student t test was used to compare neuropsychologic test scores at baseline and three months after procedure in each group. Cognitive changes in a three-month follow-up were not normally distributed and compared among/between groups with Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Three months after the treatment both the CAS and EC-IC by-pass groups showed improved cognitive performance compared to baseline, whereas the same improvement wasn’t seen in the control group. The scores from Activities of Daily Living also improved in all three groups in a three-month follow-up, and EC-IC group presented a more distinct increase in daily life abilities comparing to the other two groups. Conclusions: CAS and EC-IC by-pass in patients with a carotid or intracranial stenosis may result in cognitive improvement three months after surgery.展开更多
Stroke and heart attack,which could be led by a kind of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease named as atherosclerosis,would seriously cause human morbidity and mortality.It is important for the early stage diagn...Stroke and heart attack,which could be led by a kind of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease named as atherosclerosis,would seriously cause human morbidity and mortality.It is important for the early stage diagnosis and monitoring medical intervention of the atherosclerosis.Carotid stenosis is a classical atherosclerotic lesion with vessel wall narrowing down and accumulating plaques burden.The carotid artery of intima-media thickness(IMT)is a key indicator to the disease.With the development of computer assisted diagnosis technology,the imaging techniques,segmentation algorithms,measurement methods,and evaluation tools have made considerable progress.Ultrasound imaging,being real-time,economic,reliable,and safe,now seems to become a standard in vascular assessment methodology especially for the measurement of IMT.This review firstly attempts to discuss the clinical relevance of measurements in clinical practice at first,and then followed by the challenges that one has to face when approaching the segmentation of ultrasound images.Secondly,the commonly used methods for the IMT segmentation and measurement are presented.Thirdly,discussion and evaluation of different segmentation techniques are performed.An overview of summary and future perspectives is given finally.展开更多
Background:The purpose of this study is to report the treatment approaches and postoperative outcomes of extracranial carotid artery aneurysms (ECAAs) and discuss the symptoms,related risk factors,etiology,diagnostic ...Background:The purpose of this study is to report the treatment approaches and postoperative outcomes of extracranial carotid artery aneurysms (ECAAs) and discuss the symptoms,related risk factors,etiology,diagnostic methods,treatments,and follow-up period complications.Case presentation:We describe three patients with symptomatic extracranial carotid artery aneurysms;one of them was treated with end-to-end anastomosis of the extracranial internal carotid artery (EICA) after the resection of the aneurysm,while the other two patients were deployed with Willis covered stents in the extracranial internal carotid artery.All of the patients were in good condition when discharged home.After a mean follow-up period of 8 months,all the patients were alive and only one of them had the neurologic deficit.Additionally,we reviewed the relative literatures.Conclusion:Both of the surgical and endovascular treatments have relatively satisfactory outcomes in ECAA patients.However,it is necessary to provide individualized treatments to different patients according to the characteristics of the aneurysms.展开更多
BACKGROUND Automated,accurate,objective,and quantitative medical image segmentation has remained a challenging goal in computer science since its inception.This study applies the technique of convolutional neural netw...BACKGROUND Automated,accurate,objective,and quantitative medical image segmentation has remained a challenging goal in computer science since its inception.This study applies the technique of convolutional neural networks(CNNs)to the task of segmenting carotid arteries to aid in the assessment of pathology.AIM To investigate CNN’s utility as an ancillary tool for researchers who require accurate segmentation of carotid vessels.METHODS An expert reader delineated vessel wall boundaries on 4422 axial T2-weighted magnetic resonance images of bilateral carotid arteries from 189 subjects with clinically evident atherosclerotic disease.A portion of this dataset was used to train two CNNs(one to segment the vessel lumen and the other to segment the vessel wall)with the remaining portion used to test the algorithm’s efficacy by comparing CNN segmented images with those of an expert reader.Overall quantitative assessment between automated and manual segmentations was determined by computing the DICE coefficient for each pair of segmented images in the test dataset for each CNN applied.The average DICE coefficient for the test dataset(CNN segmentations compared to expert’s segmentations)was 0.96 for the lumen and 0.87 for the vessel wall.Pearson correlation values and the intra-class correlation coefficient(ICC)were computed for the lumen(Pearson=0.98,ICC=0.98)and vessel wall(Pearson=0.88,ICC=0.86)segmentations.Bland-Altman plots of area measurements for the CNN and expert readers indicate good agreement with a mean bias of 1%-8%.CONCLUSION Although the technique produces reasonable results that are on par with expert human assessments,our application requires human supervision and monitoring to ensure consistent results.We intend to deploy this algorithm as part of a software platform to lessen researchers’workload to more quickly obtain reliable results.展开更多
Objective This study aimed to investigate the relationship between alkaline phosphatase(ALP) and common carotid intima media thickness(IMT), carotid plaque, and extracranial carotid artery stenosis(ECAS). Methods A to...Objective This study aimed to investigate the relationship between alkaline phosphatase(ALP) and common carotid intima media thickness(IMT), carotid plaque, and extracranial carotid artery stenosis(ECAS). Methods A total of 3,237 participants aged ≥ 40 years were recruited from Jidong community in 2013-2014. Participants were divided into five quintile groups based on their serum ALP levels. Carotid atherosclerosis was assessed using ultrasound. Abnormal IMT, carotid plaque, and ECAS were defined as IMT > 0.9 mm, IMT > 1.5 mm, and ≥ 50% stenosis in at least one extracranial carotid artery, respectively. Results Common carotid IMT values and the prevalence of carotid plaque increased across serum ALP quintiles. Higher ALP quintiles were correlated with an increased risk of abnormal IMT [fourth quintile: odds ratio(OR) 1.78, 95% confidence interval(CI) 1.13-2.82, P = 0.0135;fifth quintile: OR = 1.82, 95% CI: 1.15-2.87, P = 0.0110] and ECAS compared to the lowest quintile(fifth quintile: OR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.09-1.97, P = 0.0106). The association between ALP and prevalence of carotid plaque became insignificant after adjustment for confounders. Conclusion Serum ALP levels were independently associated with abnormal common carotid IMT and ECAS. These conclusions need to be further corroborated in future prospective cohort studies.展开更多
Objective:To investigate the correlation between severe stenosis or occlusion of vertebral artery(VA)and posterior circulation ischemia(PCI).Methods:A retrospective study of 408 patients with severe stenosis or occlus...Objective:To investigate the correlation between severe stenosis or occlusion of vertebral artery(VA)and posterior circulation ischemia(PCI).Methods:A retrospective study of 408 patients with severe stenosis or occlusion of the V1-V4 segment with unilateral VA was confirmed by cervical vascular ultrasound(CDU),CT angiography(CTA),and/or DSA.According to the severe stenosis or occlusion lesions,the patients were divided into V1 segment lesion group(267 cases),V2 segment disease group(40 cases),and V3-V4 segment disease group(101 cases).Depending on whether there were symptoms of posterior circulation ischemia,408 patients were divided into symptom group(195 cases)and asymptomatic group(213 cases).CDU test recorded and analyzed hemodynamic parameters:systolic peak flow rate(PSV),end diastolic flow rate(EDV),resistance index(RI),VA tube diameter(VAD).Meantime,we had assessmented the correlation between severe stenosis or occlusion of VA and PCI.Results:1.Compariing the lesion sites in affected and healthy sides of VA,there were significant differences in PSV,EDV and VAD(p=0.000).There was no significant difference in intervertebral RI when V2 was severe stenosis(p=0.762).2.When the severely stenosis or occlusion happend in V1 or V3-V4 segment,the blood flow spectrum of the affected side was significantly different from the healthy side.3.The stenosis sexual lesion of V1 and V2 had no significant correlation with PCI symptoms(dependency coefficient was 1.06,p=0.053;0.123,p=0.323);and V3-V4 stenosis sexual lesions were moderately associated with PCI symptoms(dependency coefficient=0.217,p=0.027).Conclusions:Severe stenosis or occlusion of V3-V4 segment is likely to appear PCI.CDU can effectively diagnose lesion of VA's evere stenosis or occlusion,which provides a reliable basis of timely clinical treatment and evaluation.展开更多
文摘BACKGROUND There is no standard endovascular treatment for extracranial internal carotid artery dissecting aneurysms.In the past,stent-graft isolation and stent-assisted coil embolization were commonly used for wide-necked and fusiform aneurysms.Here,we present two cases of extracranial internal carotid artery dissecting aneurysms treated successfully using the SUPERA stent.CASE SUMMARY Case 1 was a 57-year-old male patient with sudden right limb weakness and vague speech and diagnosed with cerebral infarction in February 2019.Cervical computed tomographic angiography(CTA)revealed left internal carotid artery dissection with stenosis.CTA at 2 mo showed an eccentric wide-necked dissecting aneurysm(5 mm×5 mm×12 mm,10-mm neck)that was enlarged at 4 mo(7 mm×6 mm×12 mm,11-mm neck).The patient underwent SUPERA stent implantation.His condition was stable in July 2020.Case 2 was a 57-year-old man who suddenly felt dizzy and developed unsteady walking in November 2019.Cervical CTA suggested right internal carotid artery dissecting aneurysm(11 mm×9 mm×31 mm)complicated with severe lumen stenosis(95%).The patient underwent SUPERA stent implantation.The patient had no residual symptoms and was stable in December 2020.CONCLUSION SUPERA stent implantation might achieve good results in treating wide-necked or long fusiform internal carotid artery dissecting aneurysms.
文摘Objective Intracranial internal carotid artery dissection is a rare case. The purpose of this study was to report the treatment of intracranial internal carotid dissection and the radiologic and clinical result.Material And Method A 67 year-old female patient admitted for lower leg fracture at the outside university hospital. After 6 days later, she presented with left hemiparesis, verbal disturbance and visual disturbance. She transferred to our hospital and evaluated with MRI and Angiography. Angiography show stenosis with ulceration and pseudoaneurysm at the internal carotid artery. The stenosis rate was 63%. At the lesion, ophthalmic artery was poor visualized. Results The intracranial lesion was treated with angioplasty and stenting. After stenting, angiography showed good ophthalmic artery flow. Patients improved visual acuity just after stenting. Conclusions Intracranial angioplasty and stenting will be a good treatment option in a highly selected case.
文摘Background: To compare the neuropsychological consequences after carotid artery stenting (CAS) and extracranial-intracranial by-pass (EC-IC by-pass). Methods: A total of 43 patients referred to CAS, 32 patients referred to EC-IC by-pass and 43 control subjects were enrolled in the study. Neuropsychologic testing was performed before and three months after procedure. A paired Student t test was used to compare neuropsychologic test scores at baseline and three months after procedure in each group. Cognitive changes in a three-month follow-up were not normally distributed and compared among/between groups with Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Three months after the treatment both the CAS and EC-IC by-pass groups showed improved cognitive performance compared to baseline, whereas the same improvement wasn’t seen in the control group. The scores from Activities of Daily Living also improved in all three groups in a three-month follow-up, and EC-IC group presented a more distinct increase in daily life abilities comparing to the other two groups. Conclusions: CAS and EC-IC by-pass in patients with a carotid or intracranial stenosis may result in cognitive improvement three months after surgery.
基金This work is supported by Projects of International Cooperation and Exchanges,National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)(Grant No.:30911120497)the National 973 project Grant No.:2011CB933103.
文摘Stroke and heart attack,which could be led by a kind of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease named as atherosclerosis,would seriously cause human morbidity and mortality.It is important for the early stage diagnosis and monitoring medical intervention of the atherosclerosis.Carotid stenosis is a classical atherosclerotic lesion with vessel wall narrowing down and accumulating plaques burden.The carotid artery of intima-media thickness(IMT)is a key indicator to the disease.With the development of computer assisted diagnosis technology,the imaging techniques,segmentation algorithms,measurement methods,and evaluation tools have made considerable progress.Ultrasound imaging,being real-time,economic,reliable,and safe,now seems to become a standard in vascular assessment methodology especially for the measurement of IMT.This review firstly attempts to discuss the clinical relevance of measurements in clinical practice at first,and then followed by the challenges that one has to face when approaching the segmentation of ultrasound images.Secondly,the commonly used methods for the IMT segmentation and measurement are presented.Thirdly,discussion and evaluation of different segmentation techniques are performed.An overview of summary and future perspectives is given finally.
文摘Background:The purpose of this study is to report the treatment approaches and postoperative outcomes of extracranial carotid artery aneurysms (ECAAs) and discuss the symptoms,related risk factors,etiology,diagnostic methods,treatments,and follow-up period complications.Case presentation:We describe three patients with symptomatic extracranial carotid artery aneurysms;one of them was treated with end-to-end anastomosis of the extracranial internal carotid artery (EICA) after the resection of the aneurysm,while the other two patients were deployed with Willis covered stents in the extracranial internal carotid artery.All of the patients were in good condition when discharged home.After a mean follow-up period of 8 months,all the patients were alive and only one of them had the neurologic deficit.Additionally,we reviewed the relative literatures.Conclusion:Both of the surgical and endovascular treatments have relatively satisfactory outcomes in ECAA patients.However,it is necessary to provide individualized treatments to different patients according to the characteristics of the aneurysms.
基金Supported by American Heart Association Grant in Aid Founders Affiliate No.17GRNT33420119(Mani V)NIH NHLBI 2R01HL070121(Fayad ZA)and NIH NHLBI 1R01HL135878(Fayad ZA)
文摘BACKGROUND Automated,accurate,objective,and quantitative medical image segmentation has remained a challenging goal in computer science since its inception.This study applies the technique of convolutional neural networks(CNNs)to the task of segmenting carotid arteries to aid in the assessment of pathology.AIM To investigate CNN’s utility as an ancillary tool for researchers who require accurate segmentation of carotid vessels.METHODS An expert reader delineated vessel wall boundaries on 4422 axial T2-weighted magnetic resonance images of bilateral carotid arteries from 189 subjects with clinically evident atherosclerotic disease.A portion of this dataset was used to train two CNNs(one to segment the vessel lumen and the other to segment the vessel wall)with the remaining portion used to test the algorithm’s efficacy by comparing CNN segmented images with those of an expert reader.Overall quantitative assessment between automated and manual segmentations was determined by computing the DICE coefficient for each pair of segmented images in the test dataset for each CNN applied.The average DICE coefficient for the test dataset(CNN segmentations compared to expert’s segmentations)was 0.96 for the lumen and 0.87 for the vessel wall.Pearson correlation values and the intra-class correlation coefficient(ICC)were computed for the lumen(Pearson=0.98,ICC=0.98)and vessel wall(Pearson=0.88,ICC=0.86)segmentations.Bland-Altman plots of area measurements for the CNN and expert readers indicate good agreement with a mean bias of 1%-8%.CONCLUSION Although the technique produces reasonable results that are on par with expert human assessments,our application requires human supervision and monitoring to ensure consistent results.We intend to deploy this algorithm as part of a software platform to lessen researchers’workload to more quickly obtain reliable results.
文摘Objective This study aimed to investigate the relationship between alkaline phosphatase(ALP) and common carotid intima media thickness(IMT), carotid plaque, and extracranial carotid artery stenosis(ECAS). Methods A total of 3,237 participants aged ≥ 40 years were recruited from Jidong community in 2013-2014. Participants were divided into five quintile groups based on their serum ALP levels. Carotid atherosclerosis was assessed using ultrasound. Abnormal IMT, carotid plaque, and ECAS were defined as IMT > 0.9 mm, IMT > 1.5 mm, and ≥ 50% stenosis in at least one extracranial carotid artery, respectively. Results Common carotid IMT values and the prevalence of carotid plaque increased across serum ALP quintiles. Higher ALP quintiles were correlated with an increased risk of abnormal IMT [fourth quintile: odds ratio(OR) 1.78, 95% confidence interval(CI) 1.13-2.82, P = 0.0135;fifth quintile: OR = 1.82, 95% CI: 1.15-2.87, P = 0.0110] and ECAS compared to the lowest quintile(fifth quintile: OR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.09-1.97, P = 0.0106). The association between ALP and prevalence of carotid plaque became insignificant after adjustment for confounders. Conclusion Serum ALP levels were independently associated with abnormal common carotid IMT and ECAS. These conclusions need to be further corroborated in future prospective cohort studies.
基金Jiangsu Province Cadre Health Research Project(No.BJ17010)Suzhou Science and Technology Development Project(No.SS201714,No.SS201859)135 major projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology:Digital Diagnosis and Treatment Demonstration Application and Clinical Solution for Stroke(No.2017YFC0114302).
文摘Objective:To investigate the correlation between severe stenosis or occlusion of vertebral artery(VA)and posterior circulation ischemia(PCI).Methods:A retrospective study of 408 patients with severe stenosis or occlusion of the V1-V4 segment with unilateral VA was confirmed by cervical vascular ultrasound(CDU),CT angiography(CTA),and/or DSA.According to the severe stenosis or occlusion lesions,the patients were divided into V1 segment lesion group(267 cases),V2 segment disease group(40 cases),and V3-V4 segment disease group(101 cases).Depending on whether there were symptoms of posterior circulation ischemia,408 patients were divided into symptom group(195 cases)and asymptomatic group(213 cases).CDU test recorded and analyzed hemodynamic parameters:systolic peak flow rate(PSV),end diastolic flow rate(EDV),resistance index(RI),VA tube diameter(VAD).Meantime,we had assessmented the correlation between severe stenosis or occlusion of VA and PCI.Results:1.Compariing the lesion sites in affected and healthy sides of VA,there were significant differences in PSV,EDV and VAD(p=0.000).There was no significant difference in intervertebral RI when V2 was severe stenosis(p=0.762).2.When the severely stenosis or occlusion happend in V1 or V3-V4 segment,the blood flow spectrum of the affected side was significantly different from the healthy side.3.The stenosis sexual lesion of V1 and V2 had no significant correlation with PCI symptoms(dependency coefficient was 1.06,p=0.053;0.123,p=0.323);and V3-V4 stenosis sexual lesions were moderately associated with PCI symptoms(dependency coefficient=0.217,p=0.027).Conclusions:Severe stenosis or occlusion of V3-V4 segment is likely to appear PCI.CDU can effectively diagnose lesion of VA's evere stenosis or occlusion,which provides a reliable basis of timely clinical treatment and evaluation.
