The role of real time B-mode ultrasonography in the follow-up of patients submitted to carotid endarterectomy.

Sixty-eight patients submitted to carotid endarterectomy for carotid stenosis have been studied periodically by B-mode real time ultrasonography. This non-invasive investigation allows to detect not only a recurrent stenosis, but also minor changes following endarterectomy, including suture, lesions from clamps, myointimal proliferation, and intimal flaps. We think that all patients submitted to carotid endarterectomy must be explored periodically by duplex scanning, in order to follow-up the normal and pathological changes of the arterial wall.