Ultrasound May Help Predict Stroke Risk

An ultrasound test may help doctors to decide who needs surgery on arteries in the neck to prevent stroke. A new study has found that this test can show which people are more or less likely to have a stroke soon. The study included 435 people who had narrowing in their carotid arteries but no symptoms. The carotids are the arteries in the neck. Doctors looked at the arteries using ultrasound. They looked for tiny blood clots and fatty deposits called echolucent plaque. This is fattier than other types of plaque and linked with a higher risk of stroke. Researchers kept track of people for 2 years. In that time, people with the fattier plaque were 6 times more likely than others to have a stroke. Risk of a stroke was 10 times higher for people who had the clots as well as the fatty plaque. For this second group, the stroke risk was about 9% per year.