Objective: The risk of recurrent ischemic stroke and acute coronary syndrome increased in the large artery atherosclerotic subtype. The purpose of this study was to compare 2-year outcomes between the ischemic stroke patients with intracranial arterial stenosis without significant extracranial carotid stenosis and the patients with extracranial carotid stenosis.
Material and method: This study prospectively compared 123 ischemic stroke patients: 71 patients with intracranial arterial stenosis without significant extracranial carotid stenosis and 52 patients with extracranial carotid stenosis. Neurologic and radiologic investigations were performed at the beginning of the study. All of them were treated as regular outpatients of the neurology unit with a mean follow-up of 24 months. Recurrent stroke, myocardial infarction, and death were recorded.
Results: Fifteen patients of the extracranial carotid stenosis group and eighteen patients ofthe intracranial arterial stenosis without significant extracranial carotid stenosis group developed recurrent stroke during follow-up (p = 0.40). Acute coronary syndrome occurred in eight patients of the extracranial carotid stenosis group and only one of the intracranial arterial stenosis without significant extracranial carotidstenosis group (p = 0.004). Causes of death were end stage cancers, stroke and related conditions, and acute coronary syndrome. The multivariate analysis showed that symptomatic extracranial carotid stenosis is an important risk factor of the acute coronary syndrome (p = 0.03, OR = 10.81, 95% CI 1.23-94.77).
Conclusion: There was no significant difference of recurrent ischemic stroke and recurrent stroke between patients with intracranial arterial stenosis without extracranial carotid stenosis and patients with extracranial carotid stenosis. On the other hand, patients with extracranial carotid stenosis had more incidences of acute coronary syndrome significantly than patients with intracranial arterial stenosis.