Severe Atherosclerotic Cerebral Steno-occlusion in Koreans: Factors Related to Intracranial versus Extracranial Involvement.

Kim,  Hyun Jeong; Choi,  Byung Se; Choi,  Jin Woo; Kim,  Seon Mi; In,  Hyun Sin; Kwon,  Heon Ju; Kang,  Bo Kyeong; Chung,  Sun Young; Suh,  Dae Chul

Original Article

Neurointervention 2009;4(1):8-14.

Severe Atherosclerotic Cerebral Steno-occlusion in Koreans: Factors Related to Intracranial versus Extracranial Involvement.

Hyun Jeong Kim, Byung Se Choi, Jin Woo Choi, Seon Mi Kim, Hyun Sin In, Heon Ju Kwon, Bo Kyeong Kang, Sun Young Chung, Dae Chul Suh

¹Department of Radiology and Research Institute of Radiology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan, College of Medicine, Korea. dcsuh@amc.seoul.kr
²Deparment of Radiology, Dae Jeon, St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
To evaluate the factors related to severe intracranical atherosclerotic stenosis (intracranial vs. extracranial) as diagnosed by conventional angiography in Korean patients.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed the angiographic results and clinical data of 127 consecutive patients with an angiographically confirmed stenosis greater than 70%. Nine factors, i.e. age, gender, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, smoking and alcohol habit, previous stroke and ischemic heart disease were included as presumed explanatory variables to discriminate different types of atherosclerotic stenosis (extracranial versus intracranial stenosis). Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate independent effects of the predictive variables on cerebral occlusive disease.
RESULTS
Among 127 patients, 62 patients had intracranial stenosis and 65 patients had extracranial stenosis. Compared to extracranial stenosis, mean age was lower (p < 0.001), female-to-male ratio was higher (p = 0.001) and the number of patients with diabetes mellitus was less (p = 0.019) in group of severe intracranial stenosis significantly. There were no differences in hypertension, smoke and alcohol, hyperlipidemia, ischemic heart disease and previous stroke between two groups.
CONCLUSION
In Korean patients, severe atherosclerotic intracranial stenosis has younger, female and diabetes-free preference than severe atherosclerotic extracranial stenosis.

Key Words: Atherosclerosis; Internal carotid artery; Stroke