title: Intracranial Artery Calcification and Its Clinical Significance.
abstract: Intracranial arterial calcification (IAC) is an easily identifiable entity on plain head computed tomography scans. Recent studies have found high prevalence rates for IAC worldwide, and this may be associated with ischemic stroke and cognitive decline. Aging, traditional cardiovascular risk factors, and chronic kidney disease have been found to be associated with IAC. The severity of IAC can be assessed using different visual grading scales or various quantitative methods (by measuring volume or intensity). An objective method for assessing IAC using consistent criteria is urgently required to facilitate comparisons between multiple studies involving diverse populations. There is accumulating evidence from clinical studies that IAC could be utilized as an indicator of intracranial atherosclerosis. However, the pathophysiology underlying the potential correlation between IAC and ischemic stroke-through direct arterial stenosis or plaque stability-remains to be determined. More well-designed clinical studies are needed to explore the predictive values of IAC in vascular events and the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
authors.forename: Xiao Hong
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China. fionachen@cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Xiang Yan
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin, China.
authors.forename: Li Juan
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
authors.forename: Ka Sing
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Wong
keywords: computed tomography; intracranial arterial calcification; ischemic stroke; risk factor; vascular stenosis