Vessel diameters of 14 basal cerebral arteries assessed in 1000 digital subtraction angiographies

Abstract

Angiographic normative values for the size of intracranial vessels are difficult to obtain, since they vary with gender, height and weight. Cerebral angiography only is indicated in severe cerebrovascular diseases, which also can affect cerebral vessel diameters, impeding the definition of physiological values. To approximate “normal” values, over 1000 contemporary cerebral angiographies from a single neurovascular centre were analyzed. Diameters of 14 basal cerebral arteries, age at examination, gender and underlying disease were noted. The dataset (SPSS 29, IBM) comprises 1010 digital subtraction angiographies. For example, a significant difference (p < 0.001) in the size of the left carotid artery between male (3.23 mm, n = 361, sd = 0.49) and female (3.09 mm, n = 645, sd = 0.52) patients is found. The data can be used to compute intraindividual indices in given diseases, e.g. whether an enlarged diameter of the right media, calculated as ratio to the left media or to the ipsilateral carotid artery, is associated to cerebral aneurysms. The dataset allows for training of machine learning programs, e.g. to predict ischemic stroke or cerebral hemorrhage.