Prevalence of Internal Carotid Atheromas Using Cone Beam Computerized Tomography

Objectives:

To determine the prevalence of atheromas in the internal carotid arteries of male and females patients using dental i-CAT^TM cone beam.

Methods:

i-CAT^TM (Imaging Sciences International, Hatfield, PA, USA) cone beam scans were performed on a total of 600 patients (male patient n = 255, female patient n = 345). The exposure technique employed to acquire the studies used 120KV, 24mA, 20 seconds, and a field of view of 13cm generating voxel size of 0.3mm. The internal carotid artery was assessed in coronal, sagittal, and axial planes using Xoran software^TM provided by the manufacturer. Three clinicians interpreted the acquired images. Data were analyzed using a Student's T-test.

Results:

In 24.5% of the 600 patients, atheromas were observed in the internal carotid artery. Only 15.3% of the male patients had atheromas present on the cone beam scans. In 31.3% of the female patients, internal carotid artery atheromas were observed. The difference between the female and male groups was statistically significant (p < 0.001).

Conclusions:

Female patients displayed a greater prevalence of internal carotid artery atheromas than male patients (p < 0.001).