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Age-dependent Intracranial Artery Morphology in Healthy Children

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Abstract

Purpose

Evaluation of intracranial artery morphology plays an important role in diagnosing a variety of neurovascular diseases. In addition to clinical symptoms, diagnosis currently relies on qualitative rather than quantitative evaluation of vascular imaging sequences, such as magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). However, there is a paucity of literature on normal arterial morphology in the pediatric population across brain development. We aimed to quantitatively assess normal, age-related changes in artery morphology in children.

Methods

We performed retrospective analysis of pediatric MRA data obtained from a tertiary referral center. An MRA dataset from 98 children (49 boys/49 girls) aged 0.6–20 years (median = 11.5 years) with normal intracranial vasculature was retrospectively collected between 2011 and 2018. All arteries were automatically segmented to determine the vessel radius. Using an atlas-based approach, the average radius and density of arteries were measured in the three main cerebral vascular territories and the radius of five major arteries was determined at corresponding locations.

Results

The radii of the major arteries as well as the average artery radius and density in the different vascular territories in the brain remained constant throughout childhood and adolescence (|r| < 0.369 in all cases).

Conclusion

This study presents the first automated evaluation of intracranial vessel morphology on MRA across childhood. Our results can serve as a framework for quantitative evaluation of cerebral vessel morphology in the setting of pediatric neurovascular diseases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Jennifer L. Quon, Lily H. Kim, Gary K. Steinberg, Gerald A. Grant & Michael S. B. Edwards

  2. Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, HMRB Building, Room 155, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, AB T2N 4N1, Calgary, Canada

    Pauline Mouches & Nils D. Forkert

  3. Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Lily H. Kim, Rashad Jabarkheel & Yi Zhang

  4. Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Stanford University, School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford, CA, USA

    Gerald A. Grant & Michael S. B. Edwards

  5. Division of Radiology, Stanford University , School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Kristen W. Yeom

  6. Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Nils D. Forkert

Authors
  1. Jennifer L. Quon
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  2. Pauline Mouches
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  3. Lily H. Kim
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  5. Yi Zhang
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  6. Gary K. Steinberg
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  7. Gerald A. Grant
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  8. Michael S. B. Edwards
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  9. Kristen W. Yeom
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  10. Nils D. Forkert
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nils D. Forkert.

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Conflict of interest

J.L. Quon, P. Mouches, L.H. Kim, R. Jabarkheel, Y. Zhang, G.K. Steinberg, G.A. Grant, M.S.B. Edwards, K.W. Yeom and N.D. Forkert declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical standards

For this article no studies with human participants or animals were performed by any of the authors. All studies performed were in accordance with the ethical standards indicated in each case.

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Quon, J.L., Mouches, P., Kim, L.H. et al. Age-dependent Intracranial Artery Morphology in Healthy Children. Clin Neuroradiol 32, 49–56 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00062-021-01071-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00062-021-01071-9

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