In a Patient with Stroke, Do Ulcerations in the Aortic Arch Increase the Risk of Recurrent Stroke?
After the identification of ulcerated plaques in the aortic arch as a probably independent risk factor for stroke, the French Study of Aortic Plaques in Stroke followed for a period of 2-5 years, a cohort of 331 patients 60 years of age or older who were consecutively admitted to the hospital with brain infarction. The total follow-up was 788 person-years. All patients underwent transesophageal echocardiography to determine whether plaques were present in the aortic arch proximal to the ostium of the left subclavian artery, and the plaques were divided into three groups according to their thickness. Recurrent brain infarction was 11.9% per year in patients with an aortic-wall thickness of 4 mm or more, as compared with 3.5% per year in patients with an aortic-wall thickness of 1-3.9 mm, and 2.8%) per year in those with a wall thickness of less than 1 mm. The difference between the three groups was statistically significant (p Reference The French Study of Aortic Plaques in Stroke: Athe
