Carotid artery dissection artery dissection, 60% had infarcts documented on neuroimaging. The goal of treatment is to prevent the development or continuation of neurologic deficits. Treatments include observation, anticoagulation, stent implantation and carotid artery ligation. 70% of patients with carotid arterial dissection are between the ages of 35 and 50, with a mean age of 47 years. Carotid artery dissection Carotid artery dissection is a separation of the layers of the artery wall supplying oxygen-bearing blood to the head and brain and is the most common cause of stroke in young adults. (In vascular medicine, dissection is a blister-like de-lamination between the outer
Carotid body been put forward as a hypoxia sensor. In normoxia, haem-oxygenase generates carbon monoxide (CO), CO activates the large conductance calcium-activated potassium channel, BK. Falls in CO that occur as a consequence of hypoxia would lead to closure of this potassium channel and this would lead to membrane depolarisation and consequence activation of the carotid body. A role for the "energy sensor" AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) has also been proposed in hypoxia sensing. This enzyme is activated during times of net energy usage and metabolic stress, including hypoxia. AMPK has a number of targets and it appears that, in the carotid