Stenosis of the extracranial carotid artery

: Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) as well as intraarterial digital subtraction angiography (DSA) were performed in 45 patients suffering from cerebrovascular disease, both procedures within one week of each other. MRA und DSA were evaluated separately for every patient retrospectively by two experienced radiologists on consensus basis. The results were then compared using catheter angiography as gold standard. Evaluation was confined to the common and internal carotid arteries (CCA, ICA) in the neck subdivided into 5 grades of stenosis. A comparative assessment was impossible in 9% cases due to motion artifacts and patient malposition. Out of 18 verified CCA stenoses 13 were demonstrated by MRA and 39 out of 44 ICA stenoses were assessed by MRA. There was a highly significant correlation between degree of stenosis detected by the two methods. Spearman Rank correlation coefficients of 0.824 and 0.913 were found for CCA and ICA, respectively.