Association between Intracranial Atherosclerotic Calcium Burden and Angiographic Luminal Stenosis Measurements. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Calcification of the intracranial vasculature is an independent risk factor for stroke. The relationship between luminal stenosis and calcium burden in the intracranial circulation is incompletely understood. We evaluated the relationship between atherosclerotic calcification and luminal stenosis in the intracranial ICAs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a prospective stroke registry, we identified patients who had both NCCT and CTA or MRA examinations as part of a diagnostic evaluation for ischemic stroke. We used NCCTs to qualitatively (modified Woodcock Visual Score) and quantitatively (Agatston-Janowitz Calcium Score) measure ICA calcium burden and used angiography to measure arterial stenosis. We calculated correlation coefficients between the degree of narrowing and calcium burden measures. RESULTS: In 470 unique carotid arteries (235 patients), 372 (79.1%) had atherosclerotic calcification detectable on CT compared with 160 (34%) with measurable arterial stenosis on CTA or MRA (P < .001). We found a weak linear correlation between qualitative (R = 0.48) and quantitative (R = 0.42) measures of calcium burden and the degree of luminal stenosis (P < .001 for both). Of 310 ICAs with 0% luminal stenosis, 216 (69.7%) had measurable calcium scores. CONCLUSIONS: There is a weak correlation between intracranial atherosclerotic calcium scores and luminal narrowing, which may be explained by the greater sensitivity of CT than angiography in detecting the presence of measurable atherosclerotic disease. Future studies are warranted to evaluate the relationship between stenosis and calcium burden in predicting stroke risk.

publication date

  • July 20, 2017

Research

keywords

  • Calcinosis
  • Calcium
  • Intracranial Arteriosclerosis

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC5810931

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85029230411

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1161/STR.0000000000000024

PubMed ID

  • 28729297

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 38

issue

  • 9