Given a passage with a question and an answer to that question, classify if the answer actually answers the question into 'yes' or 'no'. Output 'yes' if the answer answers the question and output 'no' if the answer does not answer the question.
Q: Question: Are preoperative white matter lesions independent predictors of long-term survival after internal carotid endarterectomy?
Answer: WMLs in a preoperative CT scan provide a substantially reliable estimate of postoperative long-term survival of carotid endarterectomy patients independent of currently used criteria, i.e. cardiovascular risk factors, indication category and degree of ipsilateral ICA stenosis.
A:
yes