What is the rationale for using antithrombotic agents to decrease the rate of ischemic stroke in patients with extracranial dissections?
The most common mechanism of stroke with extracranial dissection is artery-to-artery from an intraluminal thrombus, which is the rationale for using antithrombotic agents to decrease the rate of ischemic stroke.599 Although most dissections heal spontaneously, a subset of patients will undergo disease progression and arterial complications such as occlusion and stenosis, which may increase the risk of recurrent ischemic events.