A week ago, he attended a stroke screening organized by the community. The carotid ultrasound showed multiple plaques and severe stenosis at the bifurcation of the left carotid artery. The head MRI showed multiple cerebral infarcts in the left hemisphere. The doctor said that Master Wang’s cerebral infarction was caused by repeated dislodgement of emboli in the carotid artery. The family asked, “How could the carotid artery cause cerebral infarction when it is still some distance away from the head? The doctor explained to the family that with the advancement of imaging technology in recent years, it was found that many cerebral infarcts are caused by the detachment of unstable plaque emboli in the carotid artery or severe stenosis of the carotid artery. These plaques are like unscheduled bombs planted in the carotid arteries, which may fall off at some time and flow to the small and medium-sized vessels in the skull, triggering intracranial cerebral infarction. So, why do carotid arteries tend to form plaques and cause stenosis? In fact, the carotid artery vessel wall consists of outer membrane, middle membrane and inner membrane, and the three membranes are tightly adhered together. The cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood do not collect on the inner membrane, but participate in a series of biochemical reactions and then penetrate the inner membrane and collect between the inner membrane and the middle membrane, where a series of biochemical reactions continue to occur. In this way, more and more plaques are formed. The surface of plaque is not smooth and rough, platelets, white blood cells, red blood cells and fibrin are easy to collect on it and form thrombus, which is easy to fall off. The plaque will continue to thicken, and the blood vessel will gradually become narrow. The key to the formation of plaque lies in the damage to the intima. Because of the bifurcation of the carotid artery, due to the three common factors of accelerated blood flow and the resistance and angle of the bifurcation, turbulence and vortex are easily formed at the bifurcation, which causes damage to the intima of the vessel wall, and then step by step, plaque is formed, resulting in stenosis. The plaque and stenosis of the internal carotid artery often precede the cerebrovascular, so it is the “window” and “alarm” of the cerebrovascular. Hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and smoking are common risk factors for carotid plaque and stenosis. If you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood sugar, diabetes, coronary heart disease, chronic periodontal disease, ischemic eye disease, long-term heavy smoking, long-term heavy alcohol consumption, if you have one of the above factors in women over 45 years old, or in men over 55 years old, or if you have two of the above factors in middle-aged people, you should have carotid ultrasound examination. If plaque or stenosis is found, timely control of the above high-risk factors and taking relevant antiplatelet statin drugs can effectively prevent the occurrence of stroke.