title: Postcarotid endarterectomy symptoms. Pre- and postoperative clinical and MRI findings.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The hyperperfusion syndrome represents a highly debated clinical entity, without having yet any clinically identifiable limits. The correlation of clinical with pre- and postoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings following carotid endarterectomy in patients with a possible hyperperfusion syndrome was investigated.
  
  
  METHODS
  
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective clinical and laboratory study.
  
  
  METHODS
  At the Aretaieio University Hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Comparison to the postoperative clinical symptomatic and MRI findings. Patients. We studied 30 patients (mean age 66.6) of whom 14 (46.6%) were asymptomatic, 16 (53.4%) were symptomatic, 17 (56.6%) were hypertensive, 18 (60%) hyperlipidaemic, 5 (16.6%) diabetic and 17 (56.6%) had coronary artery disease.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-one patients (70%) exhibited disturbances such as ipsilateral headache, seizures, vomiting or facial pain; immediate postoperative MRI scans revealed new ischaemic foci in 4 (19%) without any objective neurological findings. Lesions displayed in postoperative MRI scans did not always cause symptoms and normal findings on MRI did not exclude the presence of symptoms. Hypertension favoured the presence of subjective disturbances, without necessarily any change in the MRI appearances. Preoperative MRI and clinical findings did not contribute to the identification of patients who might have exhibited postoperative symptoms. Thus, the symptomatology remains unclear and open to debate, as a variety of other conditions may produce the same clinical picture postoperatively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Subjective disturbances, objective neurological findings and MRI abnormalities with or without hypertension may appear independently after carotid endarterectomy, a fact which makes the pathogenesis of the hyperperfusion syndrome more difficult to elucidate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Surgery, University of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Dimakakos
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tsiligiris
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gouliamos
authors.forename: T E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Kotsis
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Katsaros
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D016894:Endarterectomy, Carotid; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011300:Preoperative Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013577:Syndrome