Most aortic arch atherosclerotic plaques, particularly simple plaques <4 mm, remain unchanged over up to 18 months of observation.
Hypothesis-generating for stability of simple aortic plaques; leaves open progression risk and management of complex lesions.
To define the natural history of aortic arch plaque, we used B-mode ultrasonography to perform sequential study of the aortic arch. Eighty-nine patients were studied for up to 18 months. There was no change in 67% of total plaques; 77% of simple plaque (<4 mm) and 48% of complex plaque (> or =4 mm) did not progress. Atherosclerosis of the aortic arch can be sequentially studied with B-mode ultrasonography, and most of these lesions remain unchanged after up to 18 months of observation.
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Geraci et al. (2000) studied this question.
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