The rupture of an anterior communicating artery aneurysm does not associate with an asymmetry in the A1 or A2 arteries: a retrospective study of radiological features.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Although the formation and rupture risk of an anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysm has been the subject of many studies, no previous study has primarily searched for the relationship of the parent and daughter vessels and the impact of their size/diameter ratio on the potential rupture risk of an AcoA aneurysm. The objective of this study is to explore this link and to further analyse the surrounding vasculature of the anterior communicating artery aneurysm.

Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 434 patients: 284 patients with an ACoA aneurysm (121 unruptured and 162 ruptured) and 150 control patients without an ΑCoA aneurysm. Radiological angiography investigations were used to assess the diameter ratios of the parent vessels in addition to ACoA aneurysm morphology parameters.

Results: When comparing the ruptured to the unruptured cases, we observed no significant difference in the parent or daughter vessel diameter ratios. Younger patient age (OR 0.96, p = 0.00) and a higher aneurysm size ratio (OR 1.10, p = 0.02) were of prognostic importance concerning the rupture risk of the aneurysm. The A1 diameter ratio and the A2 diameter were not statistically significant (OR 1.00, p = 0.99, and OR 3.38, p = 0.25 respectively).

Conclusions: In our study, we focused on asymmetry in the parent and daughter vessels as well as traditional ACoA aneurysm morphological characteristics. We were able to label younger patient age and a greater size ratio as independent prognostic factors for ACoA aneurysm rupture. We were unable to label parent and daughter vessel asymmetry as prognostic factors. To validate our findings, parent and daughter vessel asymmetry should be subjected to future prospective studies.