Atherosclerosis is a major cause of ischemic strokes, the most common kind of stroke. You may have heard of atherosclerosis as a heart condition in which the arteries get blocked or narrowed by a build up of a substance called plaque, resulting in a heart attack. Well, atherosclerosis can happen in the arteries that bring blood to the brain, too. When a blood vessel to the brain becomes blocked or narrow, a stroke can occur. The brain doesn’t get enough blood and this damages the brain issue.
If the atherosclerosis is in a blood vessel within the skull, it is referred to as “intracranial.” It is “extracranial” when it is located in a blood vessel that is outside of the skull.