Stenosis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Stenosis Classification and external resources |
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| MeSH | D003251 |
|---|---|
A stenosis (plural: stenoses; from Ancient Greek στένωσις, "narrowing") 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).
Stenoses 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 combine anatomic imaging (i.e. the visible narrowing of a vessel) with the display of flow phenomena (visualization of the movement of the bodily fluid through the bodily structure).
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[edit] Causes
- atherosclerosis causes stenotic lesions in arteries.
- birth defects
- ischemia
- infection
- neoplasm
- inflammation
- iatrogenic, e.g. secondary to radiation therapy
[edit] 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)

