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Association between internal carotid artery dissection and arterial tortuosity

  • Diagnostic Neuroradiology
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Abstract

Introduction

Carotid artery dissection is an important cause of ischemic stroke in all age groups, particularly in young patients. The purpose of this work was to assess whether there is an association between the presence of an internal carotid artery dissection (ICAD) and the arterial tortuosity.

Methods

This study considered 124 patients (72 males and 52 females; median age 57 years) with CT/MR diagnosis of ICAD of the internal carotid artery were considered in this multi-centric retrospective study. The arterial tortuosity was evaluated and, when present, was categorized as elongation, kinking, or coiling. For each patient, both the right and left sides were considered for a total number of 248 arteries in order to have the same number of cases and controls. Fisher’s exact test was applied to test the association between elongation, kinking, coiling, dissection, and the side affected by CAD.

Results

Fisher’s exact test showed a statistically significant association between the ICAD and kinking (p = 0.0089) and coiling (p = 0.0251) whereas no statistically significant difference was found with arterial vessel elongation (p = 0.444). ICAD was more often seen on the left side compared to the right (p = 0.0001). These results were confirmed using both carotid arteries of the same patient as dependent parameter with p = 0.0012, 0.0129, and 0.3323 for kinking, coiling, and elongation, respectively.

Conclusion

The presence of kinking and coiling is associated with ICAD.

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Ethical standards and patient consent

We declare that all human and animal studies have been approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Department of Radiology and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. Patient consent was waived due to the retrospective nature of this study.

Conflict of interest

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria (A.O.U.), di Cagliari – Polo di Monserrato s.s. 554, 09045, Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy

    Luca Saba & Mario Piga

  2. Department of Radiology, Azienda Ospedaliero Brotzu (A.O.B.), di Cagliari, Italy

    Giovanni Maria Argiolas & Paolo Siotto

  3. Neuroradiology, UVA Department of Radiology, Neuroradiology Division, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Suna Sumer & Max Wintermark

  4. Department of Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Eytan Raz

  5. Department of Vascular Surgery, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria (A.O.U.), di Cagliari, Italy

    Roberto Sanfilippo & Roberto Montisci

  6. Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Eytan Raz

Authors
  1. Luca Saba
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  2. Giovanni Maria Argiolas
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  3. Suna Sumer
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  4. Paolo Siotto
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  5. Eytan Raz
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  6. Roberto Sanfilippo
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  7. Roberto Montisci
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  8. Mario Piga
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  9. Max Wintermark
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luca Saba.

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Saba, L., Argiolas, G.M., Sumer, S. et al. Association between internal carotid artery dissection and arterial tortuosity. Neuroradiology 57, 149–153 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-014-1436-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-014-1436-x

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