Prevalence of cerebral aneurysms in patients with fibromuscular dysplasia: a reassessment.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of cerebral saccular aneurysms in patients with carotid artery and/or vertebral artery (VA) fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD).


METHODS
A metaanalysis was performed using data from 17 previously reported series of patients with internal carotid artery (ICA) and/or VA FMD that included information on the prevalence of cerebral aneurysms. In addition, the authors retrospectively evaluated their own series of 117 patients with ICA and/or VA FMD to determine the prevalence of cerebral aneurysms. The metaanalysis of the 17 earlier series, which included 498 patients, showed a 7.6 +/- 2.5% prevalence of incidental, asymptomatic aneurysms in patients with ICA and/or VA FMD. In the authors' series of patients with FMD, 6.3 +/- 4.9% of patients harbored an incidental, asymptomatic aneurysm. When the authors' series was combined with those included in the metaanalysis, the prevalence was found to be 7.3 +/- 2.2%. The prevalence of aneurysms in the general population would have to be greater than 5.6% for there to be no statistically significant difference (chi-square test, p < 0.05) when compared with this 7.3% prevalence in patients with FMD.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of intracranial aneurysms in patients with cervical ICA and/or VA FMD is approximately 7%, which is not nearly as high as the 21 to 51% prevalence that has been previously reported.
Cloft
H J
HJ
Department of Radiology, University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Charlottesville 22908, USA.
Kallmes
D F
DF
Kallmes
M H
MH
Goldstein
J H
JH
Jensen
M E
ME
Dion
J E
JE
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002343:Carotid Artery, Internal; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002533:Cerebral Angiography; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005352:Fibromuscular Dysplasia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D002532:Intracranial Aneurysm / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D014711:Vertebral Artery / Q000473:pathology*