The study of the distribution character of cerebral arterial stenosis in patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease by means of 64 slices CT.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to investigate the distribution of cerebral artery stenosis in patients with the ischemic cerebrovascular disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred and forty-four patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease were enrolled and divided into three age brackets, the youth group (18-44 years old, 12 cases), middle-aged group (45-59 years old, 45 cases), and the old-aged group (≥60 years old, 87 cases). They were then ensued the analysis of the distribution of characteristics of cerebral artery stenosis. RESULTS: A total of 414 pathological vessels had been detected from the 144 patients with arteriostenosis or occlusion, amongst which were 24 single vascular stenosis (16.7%) and 120 multiple stenosis. (83.3%, p<0.01) The incidence of single arteriostenosis was 16.7%, and the multiple arteriostenosis 83.3%. The incidence rate of single intracranial artery stenosis was significantly higher than that of the coexistence of extracranial and intracranial artery stenosis (60.4% vs. 31.3% vs. 8.3%, p<0.01). The respective parts that were subject to intracranial and extracranial artery lesions were: a middle cerebral artery and extracranial vertebral artery. The incidence of pure anterior circulation stenosis and anterior and posterior circulation stenosis was significantly higher than that of pure posterior circulation stenosis (83.3% vs 41.7% vs. 22.9%, p<0.05, p<0.01). The pure intracranial artery stenosis of young and middle-aged group was significantly higher than that of extracranial artery stenosis of the old-aged group (83.8% vs. 75.6% vs. 49.4%, p<0.05). The incidence of pure intracranial artery stenosis of the old-aged group was significantly higher than that of the middle-aged group (12.6% vs. 2.2%, p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Cerebral artery stenosis in patients with the ischemic cerebrovascular disease was dominated by multiple stenosis. The incidence of intracranial artery stenosis was significantly higher than that of extracranial artery stenosis. The distribution of cerebral artery stenosis varied with age.