ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neuroimaging

Sec. Clinical Neuroimaging

Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnimg.2025.1559481

Association of cervical artery stenosis with common cerebral microvascular lesions and coronary artery calcifications

Provisionally accepted
Chiheb  LouiziChiheb Louizi1Eya  KhadhraouiEya Khadhraoui2Joachim  LotzJoachim Lotz1Daniel  BehmeDaniel Behme2Erelle  FuchsErelle Fuchs2Johannes  T KowallickJohannes T Kowallick1Sebastian  Johannes MüllerSebastian Johannes Müller2*
  • 1University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 2Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: A connection between cerebral white matter hyperintensities and coronary artery disease is widely discussed. Both conditions are more prevalent in the elderly. While white matter hyperintensities are often associated with small vessel disease, atherosclerosis is the primary cause of coronary artery disease.We evaluated staging CT scans of the body and staging brain MRIs from patients with newly diagnosed malignant melanoma (without metastasis) between 01/01/2015 and 06/30/2023. CT scans were assessed for coronary artery disease using a modified overall visual assessment.Fazekas scores were used to evaluate the MRI for white matter changes. Additional clinical data were obtained from digital patient records.Results: We analyzed data from 120 patients (57 females, mean age 68 years, standard deviation 14 years) and found a correlation between coronary artery disease and both age (r=0.48, α=0.04) and Fazekas score (periventricular r=0.46, subcortical and deep white matter r=0.55). A linear model including age, coronary artery disease, diabetes and arterial hypertension served as a predictor for white matter disease and showed significant correlations. Adding (1) atherosclerosis as well as (2) carotid stenosis to the model resulted in (1) a slight decrease in significance and (2) the unmaskingof a potential spurious correlation with carotid stenosis.There is a significant correlation between white matter hyperintensities and both carotid stenoses and coronary artery disease. This finding is clinically relevant: in patients with white matter hyperintensities and coronary artery disease, carotid stenosis should be ruled out.

Keywords: Microvascular lesion, Fazekas score, Coronary artery calcification, Cervical Artery Stenosis, Atherosclerosis

Received: 12 Jan 2025; Accepted: 06 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Louizi, Khadhraoui, Lotz, Behme, Fuchs, Kowallick and Müller. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Sebastian Johannes Müller, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

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