RESUMO
Objective To investigate the prevalence of morphological abnormalities of the internal carotid artery and relationship with ischemic cerebrovascular disease and carotid atherosclerosis.Methods A total of 511 consecutive patients were enrolled in this study and carotid abnormalities were classified according to the criteria of Wain and Metz by combining high-and low-frequency ultraaonography prospectively.Relationship of carotid abnormalities to ischemic cerebrovascular disease and carotid atherosclerosis were analyzed.Results Of the 511 cases,abnormalities of the internal carotid artery were found in 256(50.1 ％),the unilateral carotid abnormalities were found in 121(23.7％),and the bilateral in 135(26.4％),respectively.There was significantly difference in prevalence of kinking and coiling between ischemic stroke and asymptomatic group(P＜0.001),and prevalence of carotid abnormalities in the plaques and arteriosclerosis groups were statistically higher than the normal group(P＜0.001).Conclusions The kinking and coiling of the internal carotid artery could be additive risk factors in the pathophysiology of an ischemic stroke,and carotid morphological abnormalities could be responsible for carotid atherosclerosis partly.