University of Connecticut, School of Dental Medicine, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT.
Dentomaxillofac Radiol. 2019 Dec;48(8):20190013. doi: 10.1259/dmfr.20190013. Epub 2019 Aug 21.
Cone beam CT scans in current day dental practice are highly collimated yet involve areas along the course of the extracranial carotid artery. Detecting an extracranial carotid calcification on small volume scans leaves the dentist with two questions: whether the patient is likely to have intracranial carotid calcifications and whether the patient warrants further medical attention. This study aimed to assess the presence of intracranial carotid artery calcifications (ICAC) in the presence of extracranial carotid artery calcifications (ECAC).
450 CBCT scans were retrospectively evaluated for ECAC and ICAC. Erby et al's classification was modified to classify calcifications as mild, moderate, and severe. The presence of ICAC when ECAC were present was evaluated in all three orthogonal planes. The risk of ICAC in the presence of ECAC was calculated as odds ratio and the association between the two was calculated using a χ test.
The odds ratio for bilateral ICAC in the presence of bilateral ECAC was 15.09. The odds ratio for left ICAC/right ICAC in the presence of left/ right ECAC was 0.833 and 2.564, respectively. The number and severity of calcifications increased with age. The χ test showed that there was a strong association ( < 0.001) between bilateral ECAC with bilateral ICAC.
The results of this group of patients showed that there is an increased presence of ICAC in the presence of ECAC.
在现今的牙科临床实践中，锥形束 CT 扫描具有高度准直性，但仍涉及颅外颈动脉的走行区域。在小容积扫描中检测到颅外颈动脉钙化，会使牙医面临两个问题：患者是否可能存在颅内颈动脉钙化，以及患者是否需要进一步的医学关注。本研究旨在评估颅外颈动脉钙化（ECAC）存在时颅内颈动脉钙化（ICAC）的存在情况。
回顾性评估了 450 例 CBCT 扫描的 ECAC 和 ICAC。对 Erby 等人的分类进行了修改，将钙化分为轻度、中度和重度。在所有三个正交平面上评估了 ECAC 存在时 ICAC 的存在情况。计算了 ECAC 存在时 ICAC 的优势比，并使用卡方检验计算了两者之间的关联。
双侧 ECAC 存在时双侧 ICAC 的优势比为 15.09。左/右侧 ECAC 存在时左/右侧 ICAC 的优势比分别为 0.833 和 2.564。钙化的数量和严重程度随年龄增长而增加。卡方检验显示，双侧 ECAC 与双侧 ICAC 之间存在强烈关联（<0.001）。
本研究组患者的结果表明，ECAC 存在时 ICAC 的存在增加。
