Patients with carotid stenosis are mostly asymptomatic in the early stages, with occasional sudden onset of dizziness, headache, numbness in the limbs, transient blindness, and inability to speak with the tongue. Most of these symptoms disappear quickly and do not attract the patient’s attention. There are three main categories of symptoms in the progressive stage of carotid stenosis.
(1) TIA-related symptoms: Patients may experience transient monocular blackouts or loss of vision, aphasia, numbness in the limbs and clumsiness in movement, which mostly resolve within minutes.
(2) Ischemic stroke-related symptoms: the patient may have sensory disturbances in one limb, hemiparesis, aphasia, cerebral nerve damage, coma, etc.
(3) Other cerebral ischaemia-related symptoms: patients may experience blurred thinking, postural vertigo (meaning vertigo related to body posture), double vision, dizziness and vertigo when the condition is severe.