Aortic arch branch vessel angiography and stenting

Clinically significant upper limb vascular disease is much less common than that affecting the lower limbs. In fact asymptomatic upper limb occlusive disease may be discovered incidentally. This is often the case when a different blood pressure reading is found for the left and right arms, usually at a time of chest pain, where a diagnosis of aortic dissection is under consideration. Thus symptomatic arch vessel disease is even less common than the prevalence of the disease itself.

Aortic arch branch stenoses or occlusions are most likely to be a result of atherosclerosis (with the usual risk factors of smoking, hyper-lipidaemia and hypertension), but may also arise from fibromuscular dysplasia, inflammatory arteritis (including Takayasu’s disease) or previous radiation therapy.

The content on this page is provided by the individuals concerned and does not represent the views or opinions of RAD Magazine.