Symptoms

There are many symptoms of this problem. Small parts of fatty deposits can travel through arteries to the brain and can cause a mini-stroke or even a full-blown stroke. Another problem is that we cannot predict where the small particles of fatty deposits can go.

If the particles approach the brain, you might even sustain weakness, loss of speech, or even numbness of an arm. Brain-related conditions can also cause immobility of the leg and arm of one side of your body.

The human brain is cross-wired. If the particle goes and settles into the right side of the brain, you will feel numbness and immobility on the left side of your body. For example, if you are right-handed and particle settles on the left side of your brain where your speech center is located, you will experience speech problems.

You can also have visual problems. It can be caused by the particles which have traveled to the artery, which supplied blood to the eye.

The patient can also experience other symptoms like:

Inability to speak clearly

Loss of vision in one eye, as if a shutter or a curtain is covering the affected eye.

Inability to control the movements of leg and arm

Numbness, tingling sensation on one side of your body and weakness

There are also temporary,m mild symptoms when the fragments lodge in the brain for a short time duration.

If the symptoms which you are feeling fade away in 24 hours, it means that you had a mini-stroke.

It would be best if you never ignored these symptoms as the mini-stroke is an indication that there will be more mini-strokes or even a full-blown stroke to come.

Diagnosis

The treatment begins with the doctor generally asking about your health and your medical history, which may include questions about the risk factors, such as whether you smoke or not or the timing and frequency of your symptoms. Your blood pressure will be measured and there can also be a physical examination. You may also get a chest X-ray and ECG.

Treatment

The first thing in the treatment will be restricting you from any risk factor like smoking.

The second thing in the treatment plan will be a mixture of medicines which will be best-suited to stop you from building any form of plaque in the artery. Some drug combinations are prescribed to try and stabilize the plaque, which has already built up in the affected vessel. The latter technique is the best medical therapy used to treat Carotid Artery Disease. There will also be other medications like statins, ACE inhibitors, and aspirin.

The doctor may also decide to try an alternative like surgery, which will be an open operation called Carotid Endarterectomy (CEA). For the treatment of carotid artery disease, interventional radiology is also used, and the process used is called carotid artery stenting. In this process, a stent is placed in the vessel tube to keep it open and to prevent the plaque from blocking it.

Dr Nikolas Charalambous is named among the most prominent interventional radiologist. Get a free consultation for a minimally invasive treatment of brain, neck, and spine.