Intracranial internal carotid artery calcification: a representative for cerebral artery calcification and association with white matter hyperintensities

Abstract

Background: Our aim was to investigate the distribution pattern of cerebral artery calcification and its association with white matter hyperintensities (WMH).

Methods: We identified 159 consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke. Calcifications of cerebral arteries and WMH were graded.

Results: Cerebral artery calcification was found in 137 patients (86.2%). The intracranial internal carotid artery (I-ICA) was the most frequently affected artery with calcification (76.7%) and moderate-to-severe calcification (38.1%). Spearman's rank test revealed that the grade of I-ICA calcification was correlated with those of periventricular WMH (r = 0.417, p < 0.001) and deep WMH (r = 0.388, p < 0.001). The adjusted ORs of I-ICA were 2.62 (p <0.05) for periventricular WMH and 3.25 (p <0.05) for deep WMH.

Conclusions: Cerebral artery calcification is common in patients with ischemic stroke. I-ICA is the most frequently and most severely affected cerebral artery and its calcification is associated with WMH.