title: Coexistence of internal carotid artery stenosis with intracranial aneurysm.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Studies have hypothesized that alterations in haemodynamics and rheological properties in the main vessels like the main stem of the carotid artery or the internal carotid arteries are responsible for the formation of cerebral aneurysms.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objectives of the current analyses were to collate data that have examined the occurrence of cerebral aneurysm with coexisting internal carotid artery stenosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data sources were collated from detailed PubMed search obtained from 1990 till current. Published literature that deals with the epidemiologic properties as well as prevalence was scanned for data extraction. Publications that reported coexistence of internal carotid artery stenosis with intracranial aneurysm, detected by any modality of imaging, was included in the current study. Spearman's correlation analyses were used to obtain significant information of coexistence of an intracranial aneurysm with an extracranial internal carotid artery stenosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The frequency of concurrent extracranial internal carotid artery stenosis and an unruptured cerebral artery aneurysm is not known exactly, but has been estimated to be approximately 4%. The major limitations of the current analyses actually can be retrospectively traced to the lack of detailed analyses in this important area of investigation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although low in absolute occurrence, there is a significant correlation of the existence of an intracranial aneurysm with carotid artery stenosis. Thus, if peripheral stenosis is detected by any imaging modality including carotid Ultrasonography scan, we recommend digital subtraction intracranial angiography to detect any potential aneurysm and define its radiologic morphology.
authors: Department of Neurosurgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors: Yongping
authors: Y
authors: Liang
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Baomin
authors: B
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D016893:Carotid Stenosis / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D002532:Intracranial Aneurysm / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D039781:PubMed / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013223:Statistics as Topic
keywords: carotid artery stenosis; co-occurrence; intracranial aneurysm; metabolic syndrome; tandem pathology