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Wall shear stress is lower in the carotid artery responsible for a unilateral ischemic stroke

Claudio Carallo1, Lucia Francesca Lucca, Monica Ciamei

  • 1Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital, Piazza Umberto I, 37-88900 Crotone, Italy. claudiocarallo@yahoo.com

Atherosclerosis
|July 12, 2005
PubMed

Insights

Unfavorable hemodynamic forces in the common carotid artery are linked to unilateral large-artery ischemic strokes. These factors, including low wall shear stress and high wall tension, may explain the one-sided nature of this cerebrovascular disease.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Neurology
  • Biomedical Engineering

Background:

  • Ischemic stroke often affects one side of the brain due to the focal nature of atherosclerosis.
  • Atherosclerotic plaque formation is influenced by local hemodynamic factors such as low wall shear stress and elevated circumferential wall tension.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between hemodynamic forces and cerebrovascular disease, specifically unilateral large-artery ischemic stroke.
  • To compare hemodynamic factors in patients with large-artery stroke versus cardioembolic stroke.

Main Methods:

  • Measured common carotid mean wall shear stress, circumferential wall tension, Peterson's elastic modulus, and blood flow.
  • Studied 25 patients with unilateral large-artery stroke and non-stenotic carotid plaques.
  • Included 10 patients with unilateral cardioembolic stroke and no carotid plaques for comparison.

Main Results:

  • In the large-artery group, hemodynamic factors were significantly more unfavorable on the side affected by stroke (lower shear stress, higher wall tension).
  • Atherosclerosis was slightly more pronounced on the side of cerebral ischemia in the large-artery group.
  • No significant differences in blood flow or hemodynamic factors were found in the cardioembolic group.

Conclusions:

  • The common carotid artery supplying the brain area of a large-artery stroke exhibits an unfavorable hemodynamic profile.
  • These hemodynamic conditions may contribute to the unilateral presentation of large-artery ischemic stroke.

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