Ischemic stroke: carotid and vertebral artery disease

Ischemic strokes may have distinct aetiologies, including several different intrinsic arterial pathological disorders. The diagnosis and understanding of these arterial diseases is critical for the correct management of stroke as different treatment approaches are undertaken according to the aetiology. Atherosclerosis is by far the most common arterial disease among adults, and other pathological processes include arterial dissection, small vessel disease, inflammatory and non-inflammatory vasculopathy and vasomotor disorders. In children, there are several vasculopathies responsible for vaso-occlusive disease such as sickle-cell anemia, acute regressive angiopathy and Moya–Moya disease, neurofibromatosis, dissections, vasculitis associated with intracranial and systemic infections. An overview of the major carotid and vertebral pathological diseases responsible for ischemic stroke in adults and children, highlighting the accuracy of the different imaging modalities for its diagnosis and the imaging appearance of these diseases, is given.