Intracranial Spotty Calcium Predicts Recurrent Stroke in Patients with Symptomatic Intracranial Atherosclerotic Stenosis: A Prospective Cohort Study

Purpose Accumulating evidence highlights the association of calcium characteristics and cardiovascular events, but its role in cerebrovascular stenosis has not been well studied. We aimed to investigate the contribution of calcium patterns and density to recurrent ischemic stroke in patients with symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS). Methods In this prospective study, 155 patients with symptomatic ICAS in the anterior circulation were included, and all subjects underwent computed tomography angiography. The median follow-up for all patients was 22 months and recurrent ischemic stroke were recorded. Cox regression analysis was performed to examine whether calcium patterns and density were associated with recurrent ischemic stroke. Results During the follow-up, 29 patients who experienced recurrent ischemic stroke were older than those without recurrent ischemic stroke (62.93 ± 8.10 years vs. 57.00 ± 12.07 years, p = 0.027). A significantly higher prevalence of intracranial spotty calcium (86.2% vs. 40.5%, p