Carotid artery dissection classes: spontaneous or traumatic. Once considered uncommon, spontaneous carotid artery dissection is an increasingly recognised cause of stroke that preferentially affects the middle-aged. The incidence of spontaneous carotid artery dissection is low, and incidence rates for internal carotid artery dissection have been reported to be 2.6 to 2.9 per 100,000. Observational studies and case reports published since the early 1980s show that patients with spontaneous internal carotid artery dissection may also have a history of stroke in their family and/or hereditary connective tissue disorders, such as Marfan syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, pseudoxanthoma elasticum, fibromuscular dysplasia, and
Carotid body sustentacular supportive cells. The carotid body contains the most vascularized tissue in the human body . The thyroid gland is very vascular, but not quite as much as the carotid body. The carotid body functions as a sensor: it responds to a stimulus, primarily O partial pressure, which is detected by the type I (glomus) cells, and triggers an action potential through the afferent fibers of the glossopharyngeal nerve, which relays the information to the central nervous system. The carotid body chemoreceptors are primarily sensitive to decreases in the partial pressure of oxygen (P). This is in contrast to the