Biomarkers, Natural Course and Prognosis.

Biomarkers, Natural Course and Prognosis. Front Neurol Neurosci. 2016;40:93-108 Authors: Arenillas JF, López-Cancio E, Wong KS Abstract Increasing our knowledge about intracranial atherosclerosis (ICAS) natural history and prognostic factors is essential to improve its preventive therapy and thus reduce the dramatic clinical consequences caused by this entity. ICAS is characterized by a chronic and progressive course until it becomes symptomatic, mostly through complication of an unstable intracranial atherosclerotic plaque. Population-based studies in healthy subjects have shown that the prevalence of asymptomatic ICAS is higher in Asian than in Caucasian populations. In both settings, asymptomatic ICAS is associated with classical vascular risk factors and with the metabolic syndrome, and it is burdened with an increasing risk of having incident stroke and cognitive impairment. When it reaches its symptomatic stage, ICAS is a dynamic and aggressive condition, and affected patients are at high risk of having recurrent stroke and other major vascular events. The Stenting versus Aggressive Medical Therapy for Intracranial Arterial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS) trial has recently shown a robust impact of intensive medical therapy reducing the risk of clinical recurrence of symptomatic ICAS. However, even under best medical therapy and degree of risk factor control, symptomatic ICAS-related recurrence risk continues to be the highest among all s...
Source: Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Tags: Front Neurol Neurosci Source Type: research