[Branch atheromatous disease: how do we analyze its pathophysiology and treat it to prevent the progression of neurological symptoms?].

Branch atheromatous disease (BAD) has been recognized as one of the types of stroke which is often associated with clinical deterioration. Coagulation and platelet activation should play an important role in early neurological progression of BAD, which include complicated aspects for understanding the pathophysiology and the treatment. It has been suggested that multidrug combination therapy involving antiplatelet and anticoagulation could not prevent worsening of symptoms in the acute stage of BAD: nevertheless it should be important to improve prognosis of patients in the chronic stage. Further investigation including randomized controlled study will be needed for the accumulation of various evidences.