PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Marks, Michael P.
AU  - Marcellus, Mary L.
AU  - Do, Huy M.
AU  - Schraedley-Desmond, Pamela K.
AU  - Steinberg, Gary K.
AU  - Tong, David C.
AU  - Albers, Gregory W.
TI  - Intracranial Angioplasty without Stenting for Symptomatic Atherosclerotic Stenosis: Long-Term Follow-up
DP  - 2005 Mar 01
TA  - American Journal of Neuroradiology
PG  - 525--530
VI  - 26
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/26/3/525.short
4100  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/26/3/525.full
SO  - Am. J. Neuroradiol.2005 Mar 01; 26
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Angioplasty and stent placement have been reported for the treatment of intracranial stenosis. This study was undertaken to assess the efficacy and long-term clinical outcome of angioplasty without stent placement for patients with symptomatic intracranial stenosis.METHODS: A retrospective study was done to evaluate 36 patients with 37 symptomatic atherosclerotic intracranial stenosis who underwent primary balloon angioplasty. All patients had symptoms despite medical therapy. Thirty-four patients were available for follow-up ranging from 6 to 128 months. Mean follow-up was 52.9 months.RESULTS: Mean pretreatment stenosis was 84.2% before angioplasty and 43.3% after angioplasty. The periprocedural death and stroke rate was 8.3% (two deaths and one minor stroke). Two patients had strokes in the territory of angioplasty at 2 and 37 months after angioplasty. The annual stroke rate in the territory appropriate to the site of angioplasty was 3.36%, and for those patients with a residual stenosis of ≥50% it was 4.5%. Patients with iatrogenic dissection (n = 11) did not have transient ischemic attacks or strokes after treatment.CONCLUSION: Results of long-term follow-up suggest that intracranial angioplasty without stent placement reduces the risk of further stroke in symptomatic patients.