The purpose of the present prospective, randomized, double-blind, double dummy controlled multicenter pilot study is to investigate whether abciximab compared with aspirin is able to reduce the rate of recurrent ischemic strokes before and during CEA (primary endpoints), and the degree of carotid stenosis, number of MES counts, number of ischemic infarcts at DWI and amount of intraluminal thrombus at pathological examination (secondary endpoints) in patients with ischemic stroke due to a >50% carotid stenosis who will undergo CEA.