Ultrasound assessment of internal carotid disease candidates to endovascular carotid stenting and cardiac surgery is inaccurate in patients with severe aortic valve stenosis

Abstract

The association of internal carotid artery disease (ICAD) with aortic valve stenosis (AVS) constitutes a very high-risk clinical occurrence in which combined surgery may increase the operative risks and carotid stenting before or after cardiac surgery may be a valuable option. Unfortunately, in patients with AVS, the evaluation of carotid arteries by Doppler ultrasound (DUS) may be inaccurate. The present retrospective study is aimed to evaluate the pitfalls of DUS and the role of carotid angiography before carotid stenting in evaluating ICAD in patients with AVS. We analyzed the clinical, hemodynamic, and angiographic findings of 200 patients with moderate to severe AVS (5.5% of 3600 patients underwent cardiac catheterization; mean age, 68.5+/-10.6 years) investigated in our institution over the past 2 years. Patients with moderate to severe AVS, candidates to open cardiac surgery, underwent carotid ultrasonography to assess ICAD and complete left and right catheterization with coronary artery angiography, and in case of doubtful carotid artery sonography, the patients underwent also carotid artery angiography at the time of complete cardiac catheterization before confirming the indication to carotid stenting or combined surgery. Seventy patients with moderate to severe AVS and doubtful carotid ultrasonography underwent coincident carotid angiography. Reasons for suboptimal Doppler ultrasonographic examination are related to the anatomical or to the difficult evaluation of Doppler flow due to hemodynamic influences of AVS. On carotid angiography, 20 patients (28.5%, male/female, 8/12; mean age, 72.1+/-5.1 years) were diagnosed to have critical stenosis of one (16 patients) or both (4 patients) internal carotid arteries; in five patients, a significant ICAD was not diagnosed by DUS, whereas in seven patients, the stenosis was underestimated by DUS (mean luminal narrowing, 58+/-12.7% vs. 76.7+/-19.3%, P<.03), and in the other eight patients, DUS overestimated ICAD (77+/-12% vs. 62+/- 13.4%, P<.02). Out of this group, six patients underwent successful carotid stenting, six combined surgical treatments, and eight underwent simple cardiac surgery. Doppler ultrasound may be inconclusive in evaluating ICAD in patients with moderate to severe AVS candidates to cardiac surgery and endovascular carotid stenting. Carotid angiography may be proposed at the time of cardiac catheterization in patients with inconclusive DUS examination.