PURPOSE

To investigate the association between proximal internal carotid artery (ICA) luminal narrowing and diffuse wall thickening (DWT) in ipsilateral petrous ICA in moyamoya disease (MMD) patients.

METHODS

Forty-one MMD (mean age 42.8 ± 11.0 years, 19 males) and 36 atherosclerotic patients (mean age 61.5 ± 7.1 years, 31 males) and 41 healthy controls were recruited and underwent carotid MR vessel wall imaging. The luminal narrowing of proximal ICA was evaluated by the diameter ratio of ICA to common carotid artery (DR). The wall thickness of petrous ICA was measured on T1-VISTA images. The enhancement degree of petrous ICA was recorded and graded into four grades (none to marked) on the CE-T1-VISTA images. The correlation between wall thickness in petrous ICA and DR was analyzed RESULTS: In total, 81 arteries of MMD patients and 64 arteries of atherosclerotic patients were included for analysis. The DR was significantly correlated with the wall thickness in petrous ICA in MMD (r = - 0.434, P < 0.001) and atherosclerotic groups (r = - 0.604, P < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that odds ratio (OR) of DR was 4.433 (95% CI 1.980-9.925, P < 0.001) and 2.212 (95% CI 1.253-3.905, P = 0.006) in MMD and atherosclerotic groups in discriminating petrous ICA DWT after adjusting for confounding factors. An increasing trend was found in prevalence of DWT and wall thickness with enhancement grades in petrous ICA in MMD (P = 0.02 and P = 0.01) and atherosclerotic groups (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The proximal ICA luminal narrowing is significantly associated with wall thickness and diffuse wall thickening in ipsilateral petrous ICA in patients with carotid steno-occlusive diseases regardless of MMD or atherosclerosis.