Mild Plaque May Pose Big Risk

So if your stroke was Cryptogenic(unknown origin) you might want to consult your doctor again.
 http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Strokes/32190

Are Cryptogenic Strokes Really Cryptogenic?
More than one-third of patients who had a stroke of unknown origin were found to have complex carotid plaques in nonstenosed arteries, according to a small study.
MR imaging showed the prevalence of complicated type VI plaques, according to American Heart Association classification, in 12 of 32 carotid arteries ipsilateral to the stroke, compared with no such findings in the contralateral arteries, reported Tobias M. Freilinger, MD, from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, and colleagues.
In three-quarters of the plaques, intraplaque hemorrhage was the most common diagnostic feature, followed by fibrous plaque rupture in 50%, and surface thrombus in 33%, according to results published in this month's JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging.
"The realization that even apparently 'minor' atherosclerosis may harbor high-risk disease should change our perception of what constitutes risk for a patient," wrote Alan Moody, MD, from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Ontario, Canada, in an accompanying editorial.
Also reported in the journal, Alistair C. Lindsay, MBChB, from the University of Oxford in the U.K., and colleagues found that slightly more than half of 41 patients who suffered a transient ischemic attack had type VI plaques compared with eight asymptomatic controls.
Lindsay's group identified the three most common features as intraplaque hemorrhage, cap rupture, and surface thrombus. These features were in carotid arteries that were not considered significantly stenotic.
They also found that only two plaques showed signs of healing at 6-weeks' follow-up. Moody said that "this represents an ongoing source for thromboemboli and a potential therapeutic target for secondary prevention."