Key result
Carotid duplex ultrasound provides a risk-free, accessible method for general practitioners to evaluate carotid atherosclerosis and guide risk factor modification.
Why the study?
The authors sought to extend the usual indications of carotid duplex ultrasound to offer less experienced ultrasonographers a simple algorithm to estimate the presence and severity of carotid atherosclerosis and optimize patient management.
Carotid duplex ultrasound is a valuable, accessible tool that can be utilized by general practitioners using a simplified algorithm to assess atherosclerotic burden and optimize patient management.
Supports GP integration of carotid duplex for atherosclerosis assessment; leaves open outcome impact pending prospective validation.
The thromboembolism of an asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis (CAS) causes stroke in 10-15% cases and in Europe, stroke causes more than 1 million deaths a year. This important cause of mortality may be evaluated by duplex ultrasound (DUS). In five decades of experience, carotid DUS has proven to be a risk -free procedure, being widely available, easy to use, inexpensive, painless and quite reproducible. The purpose of this article was to try to extend the usual indications of DUS assessment of carotid atherosclerosis (CA) in order to offer a tool for less experienced ultrasonographers to gather useful information for optimizing patient’s management. We tried to review the literature and to provide a simple, easy to apply algorithm for estimating the presence and severity of CA.
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Popa et al. (2021) conducted a review in Carotid atherosclerosis. Carotid duplex ultrasound was evaluated. Carotid duplex ultrasound provides a risk-free, accessible method for general practitioners to evaluate carotid atherosclerosis and guide risk factor modification.
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