Prevalence of Vertebral Artery Atheromas Using Cone Beam Computerized Tomography

Objectives:

To determine the prevalence of vertebral artery atheromas in male and female 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 vertebral artery was assessed in coronal, sagital, 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:

Vertebral artery atheromas were present on a total of 7.5% of the 600 patients. Only 7.1% of the male patients had atheromas present on the cone beam scans. In 7.8% of the female patients, vertebral artery atheromas were observed. There was no statistical difference observed (p < 0.05).

Conclusions:

There is no difference between male and female patients in the prevalence of vertebral artery atheromas.