A procedure designed to protect the brain from strokes and mini-strokes has been shown to have an added benefit: it helps people think and remember better!

A procedure designed to protect the brain from strokes and mini-strokes has been shown to have an added benefit: it helps people think and remember better!

Until recently, surgery was the standard treatment for blockages of the carotid artery--the big artery in the neck that feeds blood to the brain. But carotid artery stenting has grown in popularity as a much less invasive alternative to restore blood flow to the brain. And that restored blood flow is showing an impressive added benefit: clearer and quicker, thinking!

Jack Laviano didn’t have the classic symptoms of a blocked neck artery. But doctors were concerned he was at high risk for stroke. “If I slept on my left side or if I put my head down on my pillow before I went to sleep I would hear a hydraulic sound like pshh pshh pshh. What you’re hearing is blood under pressure. It alerted me to the fact I probably had carotid artery disease,” recalls Jack.

Jack had a stent procedure, used for individuals who have blockage of the carotid or neck artery. With carotid artery stenting, a catheter is threaded up into the carotid. A balloon at the tip of the catheter is inflated, reopening the blockage, and then a tiny metal stent is expanded and kept at the site to act as a strut and hold the artery open.

Now, the latest research shows that not only can carotid artery stenting protect one from a stroke, it can also have positive effects on the ability of one to simply think!

In a small study of a handful of patients, neuropsychiatric testing was performed at least 24 hours before and three months after the stenting procedure. The researchers looked at cognitive speed—or how quickly the brain functioned--and memory ability. The patients were also examined with perfusion images like to look at the blood flow to the brain.

The results showed that cognitive speed increased and memory improved significantly after stenting. And that improved thinking ability was matched by improved blood flow.
“They feel better, they feel sharper, I guess that’s the best word to use for it, they feel mentally sharper, than they felt before the procedure,” Dr. Patel says.

Here’s a key point of the study: stenting to open the carotid is only done only on patients with stroke symptoms.

But because this study shows an improvement in thinking after stenting, then that would imply diminished thinking would also be a symptom not previously considered. “If you use that as a definition of being symptomatic, it’ll increase the pool of candidates that can benefit from stenting,” Dr. Patel states.

Right now stents are used only for high risk patients, in New York and other states, who can’t get the surgery. But it’s believed it’s going to be show as effective as surgery for low risk patients also. There are studies right now looking at this issue.

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