All patients with post-operative hypertension, i.e. blood pressure (BP) >160 mmHg systolic (absolute), >20% above the pre-operative

BP, or BP risen above the individual restriction in patients with an intra-operative Vmean increase >100%, underwent strict individualized BP control during the early post-operative period with intravenous labetalol (first choice) or clonidine (second choice). CHS was diagnosed if the patient developed headache, confusion, seizures, intracranial hemorrhage or focal neurological deficits in the presence of post-operative cerebral hyperperfusion (defined as >100% increase of the pre-operative Vmean) after a symptom-free interval. Of the 560 patients undergoing CEA during the time of the study, 72 (13%) received both intra- and post-operative TCD monitoring and were included for the present analysis. See Table 1 for patient characteristics. The majority of patients were symptomatic (86%). About a third of the

PR-171 molecular weight patients required the use of an intra-luminal shunt because of either EEG asymmetry or a decrease of >60% of Vmean measured by TCD. Twelve patients (17%) had an intra-operative Vmean increase >100%. Post-operatively, Vmean increase >100% was found in the 13 patients (18%). During all TCD measurements no significant selleck screening library increase in BP was found after declamping compared to the pre-clamping systolic BP or when the post-operative measurement was compared to the pre-operative systolic BP. Of all 72 patients, 19 patients (26%) developed post-operative hypertension and 5 patients (7%) suffered from CHS. All patients with CHS had hypertension during the post-operative phase. The

overall 30-day rate of death/stroke was 1%. Of 12 patients with an intra-operative increase of Vmean > 100%, 2 patients developed CHS. On the other hand, in 60 patients who had an intra-operative increase less than 100%, 3 patients suffered from CHS. This results in a PPV of 17% (2/12) and NPV of 95% (57/60) in the prediction of CHS ( Table 2). With respect to the post-operative TCD measurements 5 of the 13 patients with at least a doubling of post-operative Vmean 17-DMAG (Alvespimycin) HCl developed CHS. In the subgroup of 59 patients with a post-operative increase of less than 100% CHS did not occur. This results in a PPV of 38% (5/13) and a NPV of 100% (59/59) for the development of CHS. In the present retrospective study, as previously published, an increase in Vmean measured with post-operative TCD is superior in predicting the development of CHS to the commonly used increase in Vmean measured three minutes after declamping versus pre-clamping value [12]. The PPV of the post-operative measurement in the prediction of CHS is more than two times higher than the PPV of the intra-operative measurement (38% and 17% respectively). Moreover, absence of doubling of the Vmean at the post-operative measurement completely excluded the development of CHS (NPV 95% vs. 100% for the intra-operative and post-operative measurements, respectively).