title: Epidemiology of intracranial aneurysms of Mississippi: a 10-year (1997-2007) retrospective study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite massive efforts, progress so far has been modest in isolating the genetic determinants for intracranial aneurysm (IA). More detailed epidemiology data might be essential for successful genome-wide association study. Here, we aimed to investigate epidemiology and identify the key risk factors associated with the pathogenesis of IA in a large specific population.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated the epidemiology and analyzed the risk factors of IA pathogenesis by using an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision database search of the patients treated at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, within the past 10-year period (1998-2007). All recruited patients were interviewed to assess multiple risk factors and comorbidities (hypertension, tobacco abuse, females sex, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, coronary obstructive pulmonary disease, alcohol abuse, stroke, hyperlipidemia, illicit drug use, and family history).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this retrospective study, we identified several significant risk factors among well-defined human subjects. The 3 major risk factors identified for our IA population are hypertension, tobacco abuse, and female sex. However, African American race was not a significant risk factor in our study. Furthermore, top two risk factors (hypertension, tobacco abuse) were found to be highly associated with familial cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, using a specific and well-defined large population, we reported that some key risk factors were further confirmed to be strongly associated with the pathogenesis of IA whereas further investigation into racial factors is apparently needed. Our finding of the confounding effects of top risks with familial cases further complicated the genetic analysis of IA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216-4505, USA.
authors.forename: Tuan V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Kiran
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chandrashekar
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Andrew D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Parent
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000453:epidemiology; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D002532:Intracranial Aneurysm / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008922:Mississippi / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult