To evaluate abdominal aortic calcifications as a predictive factor for acute ischemic cerebral disease by performing a comparative analysis of intima-media thickness (IMT) of carotid artery and abdominal aortic calcifications.

Institutional review board approved this study protocol and we obtained informed consent from all enrolled patients. Between April 2010 and October 2010, 115 consecutive patients who were suspected of having lower extremity peripheral arterial disease by performing lower-extremity peripheral CT angiogram were included in this prospective study. A total 68 patients (33 men and 14 women; mean age, 63.6 years) who did not approved informed consent were excluded and residual 47 patients were prospectively studied. At first, lower-extremity peripheral CT angiogram including non-enhanced abdomen CT...

The mean volume of abdominal aortic calcification was 2422.2 mm3. The mean IMT was 0.80 mm. Abdominal aortic calcification and IMT increased with age. The correlation coefficient for abdominal aortic calcification and IMT was 0.354 (p < 0.05). Also, abdominal aortic calcification was significantly higher in the group that had a relatively thick IMT (> 0.80 mm) than in the group with a relatively thin IMT (≤ 0.80 mm) (p < 0.05).

Abdominal aortic calcification was a common but an easily-ignored finding on abdominal CT scanning. Quantitative analysis showed that abdominal aortic calcification was well-correlated with IMT. Therefore, investigating for the presence of abdominal aortic calcification can be helpful in predicting acute isch­emic cerebral disease in a patient

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