[Stent-assisted angioplasty and long-term results in atherosclerotic vertebral artery ostial stenosis].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the safety, feasibility and long-term results of stent-assisted angioplasty in atherosclerotic ostial stenosis of vertebral artery (VA).


METHODS
Forty one patients (48 lesions) with symptomatic cerebral ischemic events or stroke attributed to VA atherosclerotic ostial stenosis > or = 50% (NASCET method) found in digital subtraction angiography (DSA) were approached for consent to participate in the study. During the procedure, three cases used protection devices and three used drug-eluting stents.


RESULTS
Thirty seven of the patients were male and 4 female. Mean age was 63.4 years (range 36 - 80). Technical success was achieved in 97.9 % of the lesions. One suffered from a stroke that occurred within 30-days postprocedural. 37 patients were followed up for 22.4 months. The clinical follow-up outcomes showed that there were no lesion-related strokes and deaths, three appeared to have return of neurological symptoms (TIA). Among the 21 patients (26 lesions) who had angiography follow-up, re-stenosis (> or = 50%) was revealed in 9 patients (9 lesions) (34.6%). However, seven of these 9 patients remained asymptomatic.


CONCLUSIONS
Stent-assisted angioplasty for atherosclerotic ostial stenosis of VA is safe and feasible. It can prevent the lesion-related stroke, death and TIA recurrence. However, further studies are needed to clarify how to reduce the relatively high re-stenosis rate.
DU
Bin
B
Department of Emergency Interventional Radiology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100050, China.
Dong
Ke-hui
KH
Xu
Xiao-tong
XT
Ma
Ning
N
Jin
Min
M
Jiang
Wei-jian
WJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017130:Angioplasty; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015607:Stents; D014715:Vertebrobasilar Insufficiency / Q000628:therapy*