Morphological abnormalities of the internal carotid artery: comparative study on imaging diagnostic methods and relationship with ischemic cerebrovascular disease
SHI Yu-wen, LI Shu-xin, TAN Li-lian, XIONG Jian-qun, YU Chen
The Second Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510260, China
Abstract：Objective: To study the valve of CTA and color Doppler flow imaging(CDFI) in the diagnosis of the internal carotid artery(ICA) morphological abnormalities, and to explore the possible association with ischemic cerebrovascular disease. Methods: A total of 126 patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease were enrolled in the study, and carotid abnormalities(CA) were classified by CTA and CDFI respectively. The Kappa-test was performed to check the results of the two examination methods with digital subtraction angiography(DSA) as the standard, and the accuracy of diagnosis and classification of CA was evaluated. One hundred and twenty-six cases were divided into three groups(cerebral infarction group, TIA group and asymptomatic group) according to patients’ condition. Relationship between ICA abnormal morphology with three groups were analyzed by chi-square test individually. Results: Results of CTA and CDFI in 38 cases(76 carotid arteries) were compared with DSA diagnosis, respectively, with Kappa=0.95(P<0.001) and Kappa=0.88(P<0.001), showing good consistency. And CTA in the diagnosis of ICA morphological abnormalities was slightly better than CDFI. Results of CTA and CDFI in 126 cases(252 carotid arteries) were compared by Kappa test, with Kappa=0.93(P<0.001), representing high consistency of the two methods. There was significant difference in prevalence of patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease between three groups(χ2=16.22, P=0.001). The prevalence of distorted ICA of cerebral infarction group and TIA group was higher then asymptomatic group, but there was no significant difference between cerebral infarction group and TIA group. Conclusion: CTA has good agreement with CDFI in assessing ICA morphologic abnormalities. The existence of distorted ICA may be a risk factor for ischemic cerebrovascular disease.
2015, Vol. 26 
