• Anil Can, Allen L Ho, Bart J Emmer, Ruben Dammers, Clemens M F Dirven, and Rose Du.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
• World Neurosurg. 2015 Nov 1;84(5):1251-5.

ObjectiveHemodynamic stress, conditioned by the geometry and morphology of the vessel trees, plays an important role in the formation of intracranial aneurysms. The aim of this study was to identify image-based location-specific morphologic parameters that are associated with posterior communicating artery (PCoA) aneurysms.MethodsMorphologic parameters obtained from computed tomography angiography of 56 patients with PCoA aneurysms and 23 control patients were evaluated with 3D Slicer, an open-source image analysis software, to generate 3-dimensional models of the aneurysms and surrounding vasculature. Segment lengths, diameters, and vessel-to-vessel angles were examined. To control for genetic and clinical risk factors, the unaffected contralateral side of patients with unilateral PCoA aneurysms was used as a control group for internal carotid artery (ICA)-related parameters. A separate control group with visible PCoAs and aneurysms elsewhere was used as a control group for PCoA-related parameters.ResultsInternal carotid artery-related parameters were not statistically different between the PCoA aneurysm and control groups. Univariate and multivariate subgroup analysis for patients with visualized PCoAs demonstrated that a larger PCoA diameter was significantly associated with the presence of a PCoA aneurysm (odds ratio = 12.1, 95% confidence interval = 1.3-17.1, P = 0.04) after adjusting for other morphologic parameters.ConclusionsLarger PCoA diameters are associated with the presence of PCoA aneurysms. These parameters may provide objective metrics to assess aneurysm formation and growth risk stratification in high-risk patients.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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