Intracranial carotid artery calcification on head CT and its association with ischemic changes on brain MRI in patients presenting with stroke-like symptoms: retrospective analysis.

Introduction: Our purpose was to study the association between the intracranial arterial calcifications observed on head CT and brain infarcts demonstrated by MRI in patients presenting with acute stroke symptoms.

Methods: Institutional review board approval was obtained for this retrospective study which included 65 consecutive patients presenting acutely who had both head CT and MRI. Arterial calcifications of the vertebrobasilar system and the intracranial cavernous carotid arteries (intracranial carotid artery calcification, ICAC) were assigned a number (1 to 4) in the bone window images from CT scans.