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Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty for Atherosclerotic Stenosis of the Intracranial Cerebral Arteries

Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) was carried out 52 times for 49 lesions in 47 cases of atheroscrelotic stenosis of the intracranial or skull base cerebral arteries. The stenotic lesions involved the middle cerebral artery in 21 cases, the basilar artery in eight cases, the internal carotid artery (petrous-supraclinoid portion) in 15 cases, and the intracranial vertebral artery in five cases. Nearly all cases were symptomatic, such as TIA or stroke, and the degree of stenosis ranged from 70 to 99 percent, with a mean of 80 percent. PTA was performed using a STEALTH balloon angioplasty catheter. In these trials, PTA was successfully performed (as indicated by a residual stenosis under 50%) 41 times. The initial success rate was 79% and stenosis was reduced from 80% to 25%. Clinical follow-up was performed from 7 to 84 months with a mean of 44 months. During this period, death due to myocardial infarction or pneumonia occurred in five cases, stroke related to previous PTA occurred in one case (due to re-stenosis) and stroke unrelated to previous PTA occurred in two cases. Angiographic follow-up was performed in 31 cases after 41 successful PTA procedures. Re-stenosis was seen in 20% of the cases, symptomatic complications occurred in 6%, and asymptomatic complications occurred in 6% of the cases. One case suffered severe subarachnoid hemorrhage just after the PTA due to preexisting aneurysm rupture and he died a week after the PTA. So mortality in this series was 2%. From the results described here, we may conclude that PTA of the intracranial or skull base cerebral artery is technically feasible, and it can be performed with relatively low risk. From our results, it may be a useful method and effective for long-term survival of patients. But results from a larger number of patients and more long-term follow-up data are still necessary in order to evaluate the safety and usefulness of this method.