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Investigation of the morphometric characteristics of internal carotid artery between sexes and in patients with intracranial aneurysms

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the morphometric properties of the internal carotid artery (ICA) by measuring the diameters and angles of its segments and exploring variations related to sex and the presence of aneurysms.

Methods

Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) images were utilized from 130 aneurysm patients and 75 non-aneurysm individuals to create 3D ICA models using 3D Slicer software. Segment diameters were measured via Autodesk Meshmixer 3.5.474 and angles were evaluated using ImageJ software.

Results

In total, DSA images of 130 aneurysm patients and 75 individuals with normally reported carotid systems were evaluated. It was found that the intracranial aneurysms (IAs) were predominantly formed on the anterior cerebral artery (ACA) in males (%43), whereas in females IAs were frequently localized in the C6 segment (31.7%) and middle cerebral artery (MCA) (30.2%). In the control group, the evaluation of gender differences in segment diameters and angles revealed that males had significantly larger C4 and C5 segment diameters (4.62 vs. 4.32 mm and 4.41 vs. 4.09 mm, respectively) and a greater C6 angle (146.9° vs. 139.7°) compared to females. Comparisons between patients with an aneurysm at the anterior cerebral artery (ACA) and the control group revealed that the ACA group had wider diameters in the C1 (4.88 vs. 4.53 mm), C3 (4.65 vs. 4.4 mm), C5 (4.51 vs. 4.25 mm), and ACA (2.36 vs. 2.06 mm) segments. Additionally, the ACA group had wider angles in the ACA (104.1° vs. 94.1°) and C6 segments (147.7° vs. 143.3°), whereas the control group exhibited wider angles in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) segment (141.5° vs. 135.5°) compared to the ACA aneurysm group. Patients with anterior cerebral artery (ACA) aneurysms exhibited larger diameters in C1, C3, C5, C6, and ACA segments compared to the control group. Additionally, while the control group had larger MCA angle, patients with ACA aneurysms had larger angles in C6 segment and ACA.

Conclusion

Our results demonstrated that formation of aneurysms is affected by anatomical configuration of the ICA as well as sex characteristics, particularly regarding the ACA and MCA bifurcation angles, which showed associations with aneurysms in the respective branches.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank to technical staff of the Cukurova University Department of Radiology for their technical support and contribution to the collection of DSA dataset.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, 01330, Turkey

    Yigit Cevik, Huseyin Erdem, Emine Dondu Kizilkanat & Ozkan Oguz

  2. Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, 01330, Turkey

    Hasan Bilen Onan

  3. Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, 01330, Turkey

    Sevinc Puren Yucel

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  1. Yigit Cevik
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Contributions

Conceptualization: [YC]; Methodology: [YC], [HBO]; Formal analysis and investigation: [SPY], [YC]; Writing—original draft preparation: [YC]; Writing—review and editing: [HE], [YC]; Resources: [HBO]; Supervision: [EDK], [OO]; Visualization: [YC].

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Correspondence to Yigit Cevik.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

Ethical approval was waived by the local Ethics Committee of Cukurova University in view of the retrospective nature of the study and all the procedures being performed were part of the routine care (Protocol no: 6.12.2019/94-18).

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Cevik, Y., Onan, H.B., Erdem, H. et al. Investigation of the morphometric characteristics of internal carotid artery between sexes and in patients with intracranial aneurysms. Surg Radiol Anat (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-024-03351-8

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