Opening narrowed neck arteries does not improve thinking, trial finds

Patients in the trial

291 with severe narrowing, no symptoms

The trial enrolled 291 patients with carotid artery narrowing of at least 70% and no symptoms. It compared stenting or surgery with medication alone.

After one year, cognitive scores improved slightly in both groups, but patients who had a procedure did no better than those on medication alone.

Background

In a larger parent trial, adding stenting to medication cut strokes by about half. Surgery did not show the same benefit.

"We concluded that revascularization to reverse cognitive decline in these patients cannot be expected."

— Randolph Marshall, Columbia University