Application of Carotid Duplex Ultrasonography in the Surveillance of Carotid Artery Stenosis after Neck Irradiation.

Head and neck cancer (HNC) shares some risk factors with cardiovascular disease. Neck radiotherapy (RT) causes carotid artery injury and stenosis. In HNC patients treated with RT, the prevalence rate of severe ( > 70%) carotid artery stenosis is > 10%, and the cumulative incidence continuously increases over time. There is at least a two-fold risk of cerebrovascular events in these patients compared with the normal population. Carotid artery stenosis is mainly assessed and diagnosed via duplex ultrasonography. Angioplasty and stenting may be recommended to patients who developed severe post-irradiation carotid artery stenosis. This review assessed Taiwanese data that provided some recommendations for HNC patients treated with RT. With consideration of the high prevalence rate of carotid artery stenosis after neck irradiation, duplex ultrasonography should be included in the follow-up workup.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Yen-Wen Wu and Pei-Wei Shueng are serving as Guest editors of this journal. We declare that Yen-Wen Wu and Pei-Wei Shueng had no involvement in the peer review of this article and have no access to information regarding its peer review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to Fabrizio D’Ascenzo and Dimitrios Farmakis.
(Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.)