After ultrasounds, my son's doctor told him he has thickening of the artery in his neck. how serious is this? what treatment is she likely to suggest for this conditions? she is not seeing him again until may and i am concerned that she is not seeing hi

In : In order to better answer your question, how old is your son? Is he a smoker? Does he suffer from high blood pressure? Has he ever had a stroke? Does he have heart disease? Ultrasounds over the last few years have gotten exceedingly good at being able to pick up mild abnormalities in blood vessels; sometimes these findings mean little and sometimes they have significance. Did the doctor indicate that there was a narrowing of his arteries? If that is the case, just like the previous answer, it may make a difference as to how narrow things are and whether or not he is having symptoms. It is not unreasonable to follow these findings with ultrasounds at 6 months or even a year, but it all depends upon how severe the narrowing is upon it being first discovered.

It : It sounds like your son has carotid artery stenosis (narrowing) which is usually caused by atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Under certain circumstances -- when the narrowing is greater than 70%, if there are ulcerations in the inner wall of the artery, or if the patient is having tias (mini-strokes) -- corrective surgery is usually recommended. This can be accomplished in two ways: the artery can be opened and its wall scraped clean, or a stent can be threaded into the narrowed portion to expand the artery. If your son's carotid narrowing is not severe and if he's not having tias, the risks of performing surgery or placing a stent could outweigh any benefits he might obtain. In that case, his doctor may simply want to keep an eye on the narrowed artery with ultrasounds every 6 to 12 months. I hope that helps!

Thickening : Thickening of the carotid artery in the neck is an aging phenomenon, with the wall of the artery having a fatty streak, and this is early arteriosclerosis. Without symptoms, and no mention of narrowing of the carotid after, followup in may is reasonable.

Need Context: Carotid intima-media thickness (cimt) ultrasound measures the thickness of the arterial wall in several areas. Subclinical vascular disease is present if: 1. Mean cimt or max cimt is > the 75th percentile for a patient's age, gender and ethnicity; 2. A "plaque" is identified (focal thickening > 1.5 mm or thickening > twice the adjacent tissue). The presence of either should prompt evaluation & rx.