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Cerebral Aneurysms: Formation, Progression, and Developmental Chronology

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Abstract

The prevalence of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) in the general population is up to 3 %. Existing epidemiological data suggests that only a small fraction of UIAs progress towards rupture over the lifetime of an individual, but the surrogates for subsequent rupture and the natural history of UIAs are discussed very controversially at present. In case of rupture of an UIA, the case fatality is up to 50 %, which therefore continues to stimulate interest in the pathogenesis of cerebral aneurysm formation and progression. Actual data on the chronological development of cerebral aneurysm has been especially difficult to obtain and, until recently, the existing knowledge in this respect is mainly derived from animal or mathematical models or short-term observational studies. Here, we review the current data on cerebral aneurysm formation and progression as well as a novel approach to investigate the developmental chronology of cerebral aneurysms.

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Acknowledgments

NE and RLM receive grant support from the Physicians Services Incorporated Foundation. RLM receives grant support from the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. RLM is a consultant for Actelion Pharmaceuticals and Chief Scientific Officer of Edge Therapeutics, Inc. NE, DH, and RLM are scientific advisors/officers for Edge Therapeutics, Inc.

Support was also provided by NIH/NIGMS 8P41GM103483. This work was performed in part under the auspices of the US Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University, Moorenstrasse 5, 40225, Dusseldorf, Germany

    Nima Etminan, Hans-Jakob Steiger & Daniel Hänggi

  2. Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA

    Bruce A. Buchholz

  3. Institute for Physiological Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry, Westfalian Wilhelms-University, Waldeyerstrasse 15, 48149, Muenster, Germany

    Rita Dreier & Peter Bruckner

  4. Department of Epidemiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    James C. Torner

  5. Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael’s Hospital, Labatt Family Centre of Excellence in Brain Injury and Trauma Research, Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    R. Loch Macdonald

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  1. Nima Etminan
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Etminan, N., Buchholz, B.A., Dreier, R. et al. Cerebral Aneurysms: Formation, Progression, and Developmental Chronology. Transl. Stroke Res. 5, 167–173 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12975-013-0294-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12975-013-0294-x

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