Endovascular management of medically refractory intracranial arterial stenosis

Background Despite aggressive medical therapy, the risk of recurrent stroke in patients with symptomatic intracranial arterial (ICA) disease is as high as 15% per year. In patients with severe stenosis (>70%) and in certain high-risk groups, the risk of recurrent stroke has been reported to be as high as 25% per year. Objective Our study aimed to follow-up the patients after ICA stenting by using transcranial duplex (TCD). Patients and methods This is a retrospective single-center study carried out on data of patients recruited to Neurovascular Unit of El Mataria Teaching Hospital during the period from June 2015 to June 2016. A total of 25 patients were enrolled. TCD before and after stenting data were collected from the patients' files. Results Our study showed significant decreased in mean flow velocity and percent of stenosis after intracranial stenting. Conclusion Our study concluded that TCD is a good method for follow-up of patients after ICA stenting.