Carotid Stenosis and Stroke: Medicines, Stents, Surgery-"Wait-and-See" or Protect?

Competing Interests: P.M. is a recipient of research grants for basic and clinical investigations in atherosclerosis, and he has proctored and/or consulted for Abbott Vascular, Balton, Gore InspireMD, and Medtronic. P.M. has performed clinical trials of novel minimally invasive methods in carotid revascularization in primary and secondary stroke prevention including CARENET (Co-Principal Investigator), PARADIGM/PARADIGM-Extend (Principal Investigator), OPTIMA (Principal Investigator), TOP-Guard (Principal Investigator), and he is Global Co-Principal Investigator in FDA IDE CGUARDIANS trial. P.M. is the Polish Cardiac Society Board Representative for Stroke and Vascular Interventions and serves on the ESC Stroke Council Scientif Documents Task Force. K.R. reports receiving fees for serving on advisory boards from Abbott Vascular, Cardinal Health, Surmodics, Inari Medical, Volcano/Philips, and Proteon; receiving fees and stock options for serving on advisory boards from Cruzar Systems, Valcare, and Eximo; receiving stock options for serving on advisory boards from Capture Vascular, Shockwave, Micell, Endospan, and Silk Road Vascular; receiving stock options for serving on the advisory boards of and the holding of equity positions in Contego, Access Vascular, and MD Insider; holding stock/stock options in Embolitech, Janacare, Primacea, and PQ Bypass; receipt of a future payout from a previous equity position in Vortex; and receiving grant support paid to his institution from Abbott Vascular, Atrium/Maquet, and Lutonix/Bard. A.H.S. has consulted for Amnis Therapeutics Ltd, Cerebrotech Medical, Systems Inc., CereVasc LLC, Claret Medical Inc., Codman, Corindus Inc., GuidePoint Global Consulting, Medtronic (Formerly Covidien), MicroVention, Neuravi, Penumbra, Pulsar Vascular, Rapid Medical, Rebound Therapeutics Corporation, Silk Road Medical, Stryker, The Stroke Project Inc., Three Rivers Medical Inc., and W.L. Gore & Associates, and is a Board Member of Intersocietal Accreditation Commission. He has been Principal Investigator and/or served on Steering Committees for: Codman & Shurtleff, LARGE Trial, Covidien (Now Medtronic), SWIFT PRIME and SWIFT DIRECT Trials; MicroVention, FRED Trial, CONFIDENCE Study, MUSC, POSITIVE Trial; Penumbra, 3D Separator Trial, COMPASS Trial, INVEST Trial. A.H.S. has financial interests in BuffaloTechnology Partners Inc., Cardinal, International Medical Distribution Partners, Medina Medical Systems, Neuro Technology Investors, StimMed, and Valor Medical. I.Q.G. is Vice President of the World Federation for Interventional Stroke Treatment (WIST).