Assessment of relationship between extracranial and intracranial carotid calcifications—a retrospective cone beam computed tomography study

Abstract

Objectives: Cone beam CT scans in current day dental practice are highly collimated yet involve areas along the course of the extracranial carotid artery. Detecting an extracranial carotid calcification on small volume scans leaves the dentist with two questions: whether the patient is likely to have intracranial carotid calcifications and whether the patient warrants further medical attention. This study aimed to assess the presence of intracranial carotid artery calcifications (ICAC) in the presence of extracranial carotid artery calcifications (ECAC). Methods: 450 CBCT scans were retrospectively evaluated for ECAC and ICAC. Erby et al’s classification was modified to classify calcifications as mild, moderate, and severe. The presence of ICAC when ECAC were present was evaluated in all three orthogonal planes. The risk of ICAC in the presence of ECAC was calculated as odds ratio and the association between the two was calculated using a χ2 test. Results: The odds ratio for bilateral ICAC in the presence of bilateral ECAC was 15.09. The odds ratio for left ICAC/right ICAC in the presence of left/ right ECAC was 0.833 and 2.564, respectively. The number and severity of calcifications increased with age. The χ2 test showed that there was a strong association (p < 0.001) between bilateral ECAC with bilateral ICAC. Conclusions: The results of this group of patients showed that there is an increased presence of ICAC in the presence of ECAC.