Coronary Artery Disease And Intracranial Aneurysm; Identical Risk Factors But Different Vascular Responses

Background: Intracranial aneurysm (IA) is a vascular disease with localized abnormal outpouching in cerebral vessels. We have hypothesized that though the risk factors are similar between atherosclerosis and IA, the response of the vessel may be different. Methods: Subjects who received a routine health examination (health examination group) or coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG group) during the study period were enrolled. The incidence of IA was compared between the two groups. The incidence of valvular insufficiency was compared between patients with and without IA in the CABG group. The tortuosities of intracranial arteries were compared between patients with IA and age- and sex-matched control from the health examination group. Results: Finally, 367 of 18,954 health examination group and 49 of 2,734 patients of CABG group demonstrated IA. After adjusting for age and sex, the prevalence of IA was higher in the health examination group than the CABG group (1.81% vs.0.71%; p Conclusions: Patients with IA seems to have a weaker vascular structure which easily dilates or twine to tensile strength causing valvular insufficiency or high vascular tortuosity.