cholesterol-lowering drugs if your bad cholesterol level is high (LDL >100).anticoagulant (blood thinning) drugs such as warfarin (Coumadin TM) to prevent clots forming.antiplatelet drugs (aspirin, dipyridamole (Aggrenox®) or clopidogrel (Plavix®)) which help keep blood platelets from sticking together to form a clot.blood pressure lowering drugs if your blood pressure is high.Talk to a doctor about making lifestyle changes that can also slow down the development of atherosclerosis.Ī doctor may also suggest medicines to prevent TIAs and stroke. Experiencing a stroke once means increases the chance of a recurrent stroke. It is usually discovered after a stroke occurs. Intracranial atherosclerosis is hardening of the arteries in the brain. They are ordered by a doctor and performed by a trained examiner or radiologist. Other tests use sound waves to study your blood flow. With these tests, a doctor can see if the arteries are diseased, narrowed, enlarged, or blocked altogether. Some take pictures of your blood vessels using a type of X-ray. Has already had a stroke and had a high degree of plaque build-up in the brainĪ doctor may be able to diagnose intracranial atherosclerosis by looking at the blood flow in your brain.Has a family member who has had stroke or heart disease.Risk for intracranial atherosclerosis increases if a person: each year have a stroke caused by narrowed arteries in the skull about 8-10% of all ischemic or clot-caused strokes. What we do know is that about 70,000 people in the U.S. In fact, most people find out they have this problem only after they have already had a stroke.īecause there are no symptoms, we don’t really know how many people have some degree of atherosclerosis in their brain arteries. Generally there are no symptoms until the arteries are so clogged with plaque that blood can no longer flow through them. So, intracranial atherosclerosis is a narrowing and hardening of the arteries in the skull. Intracranial simply means “inside the skull.” Atherosclerosis is a hardening of the arteries.