Carotid artery dissection 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 and inner walls of a blood vessel, generally originating with a partial leak in the inner lining.) The signs and symptoms of carotid artery dissection may be divided into ischemic and non-ischemic categories: "Non-ischemic signs and symptoms" "Ischemic signs and symptoms" The causes of internal carotid artery dissection can be broadly categorised into two
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