Stenosis

A stenosis is an abnormal narrowing in a blood vessel or other tubular organ or structure. It is also sometimes called a "stricture" (as in urethral stricture).

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Stenosis of the vascular type are often associated with a noise (bruit) resulting from turbulent flow over the narrowed blood vessel. This bruit can be made audible by a stethoscope. Other, more reliable methods of diagnosing a stenosis are imaging methods including ultrasound, Magnetic Resonance Imaging/Magnetic Resonance Angiography, Computed Tomography/CT-Angiography which display anatomic imaging (i.e. the visible narrowing of a vessel) and/or flow phenomena (signs of the movement of the bodily fluid through the bodily structure).

Causes

• atherosclerosis causes stenotic lesions in arteries.
• birth defects
• ischemia
• infection
• neoplasm
• inflammation
• iatrogenic, e.g. secondary to radiation therapy

Types

The resulting syndrome depends on the structure affected.

Examples of vascular stenotic lesions include:

• Intermittent claudication (peripheral artery stenosis)
• Angina (coronary artery stenosis)
• Carotid artery stenosis which predispose to (strokes and transient ischaemic episodes)
• Renal artery stenosis

Stenoses/strictures of other bodily structures/organs include:

• Pyloric stenosis (gastric outflow obstruction)
• Obstructive jaundice (biliary tract stenosis)
• Bowel obstruction
• Phimosis
• Hydrocephalus
• Stenosing tenosynovitis
• Spinal stenosis
• Subglottic stenosis (SGS)

See also

• Restenosis
• Atresia