Welcome to the Carotid and Vertebral Artery Transluminal Angioplasty Study (CAVATAS) and the International Carotid Stenting Study (ICSS) Website.

CAVATAS is an international randomised trial of stroke prevention designed to determine the safety and effectiveness of angioplasty, compared with endarterectomy (surgery) or best medical treatment, in patients with carotid or vertebral artery stenosis. CAVATAS stopped enrolling new patients in 1997 and continued to follow up patients enrolled in the trial until 2007.

The results of long-term follow up in CAVATAS have been published in the Lancet Neurology and may be accessed here . 

The long term risks of restenosis in CAVATAS have also been published in the Lancet Neurology and may be accessed here . 

ICSS (CAVATAS 2) is an international randomised trial of stroke prevention comparing the effectiveness of treatment of carotid stenosis by carotid stenting with treatment by carotid endarterectomy.  

The interim safety analysis of the ICSS has now been published in the Lancet and may be accessed here . 

The results of the MRI substudy examining the occurrence of brain lesions after stenting or endarterectomy have been published in Lancet Neurology and may be accessed here . 

Click here for details of the latest ICSS  Investigators’ Meeting. 

This website provides information about the trials and is primarily designed for existing and potential participants and collaborators. Copies of the ICSS protocol and data collection forms can be downloaded or printed directly from the site.

Please use the navigation bar on the left to navigate around the site.

If you are of a non-medical background, you may find the BBC Stroke Guide useful. You may also find it useful to read our procedures page which gives an introduction to carotid angioplasty and stenting.

 

 

To view many of the downloads, Adobe Acrobat Reader is required. This can be downloaded by following this link: