November 21, 2011 - Frank J. Veith, M.D., founder and chairman of the VEITH symposium, the William J. von Liebig Chair in Vascular Surgery, Cleveland Clinic and New York University Medical Center, took a strong position against the current guidelines of the American Heart Association (AHA) that support the use of carotid artery stenting (CAS), as opposed to the more traditional open carotid endarterectomy (CEA), to treat symptomatic carotid stenosis (CS) in low to moderate risk patients. Veith explained to an audience of his peers that an important clinical trial for CAS, the CREST (Carotid Revascularization Endarterectomy vs. Stent Trial), had results that appeared to show that the stent procedure (CAS) and the open surgical approach (CEA) were equivalent. Veith argued that the study was in fact flawed in several ways and that the AHA guideline was misguided.

November 18, 2011 – Stroke remains a major healthcare problem; it currently ranks as the third most common cause of death in Western nations, and this is only expected to increase as the population ages. For this reason, early identification of symptoms that are known predictors of stroke is a topic that was addressed with great deliberation and discussion at the 2011 VEITH symposium.