Ischemia after carotid endarterectomy: comparison between transcranial Doppler sonography and diffusion-weighted MR imaging.

Apart from lesions corresponding to clinical deficits, CEA is associated with a substantial number of small areas of brain tissue at risk for irreversible ischemia. The main cause of intraoperative stroke seems to be embolism, suggesting that microembolic signals in CEA are highly relevant events for brain tissue.