Size of the Carotid Body in Patients with Cardiovascular and Respiratory Diseases Measured by Computed Tomography Angiography: A Case-Control Study

Sándor Csizmadia; Gergely H Fodor; András Palkó; Erika Vörös

doi:10.1155/2021/9499420

Size of the Carotid Body in Patients with Cardiovascular and Respiratory Diseases Measured by Computed Tomography Angiography: A Case-Control Study

Radiol Res Pract. 2021 Oct 15:2021:9499420. doi: 10.1155/2021/9499420. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Sándor Csizmadia¹, Gergely H Fodor², András Palkó³, Erika Vörös³

Affiliations

¹ Affidea Hungary Ltd. Budapest, 44-46 Bókay János Street, Budapest H-1083, Hungary.
² Department of Medical Physics and Informatics, University of Szeged, Faculty of General Medicine, 9 Korányi Alley, Szeged H-6725, Hungary.
³ Department of Radiology, University of Szeged, Faculty of General Medicine, 6 Semmelweis Street, Szeged H-6725, Hungary.

Abstract

Objectives: Carotid bodies (CBs) play an important role in regulating sympathetic nervous system activity. Thus, they are likely to be enlarged in patients with certain cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The aim of this case-control study was to verify this hypothesis using computed tomography angiography (CTA).

Methods: We retrospectively analysed 141 CTAs including 16 controls, 96 patients with only hypertension (HT), 12 with HT and previous acute myocardial infarction (AMI), 9 with HT and heart failure (HF), and 8 with HT and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We assessed the data using analysis of variance, with p < 0.05 indicating significance.

Results: CB average areas in the controls were 2.31 mm² (right side (RS)) vs. 2.34 mm² (left side (LS)). CB size was significantly enlarged in patients with HT: 3.07 mm² (RS) (p=0.019) vs. 2.91 mm² (LS) (p=0.002). If AMI (RS: 3.5 mm²; LS: 3.44 mm²) or HF (RS: 4.01 mm²; LS: 4.55 mm²) was associated with HT, the CB size was even more enlarged. COPD did not affect CB size (RS: 2.40 mm²; LS: 2.29 mm²).

Conclusions: Our data showed that certain diseases with increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system were associated with significantly enlarged CBs.