Value of magnetic resonance angiography for the detection of intracranial aneurysms in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease

The association of intracranial aneurysms with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), the 30-day mortality rate exceeding 50% for aneurysmal rupture, the effectiveness of surgical repair of unruptured aneurysms with a low surgical risk, and the development of noninvasive imaging techniques for their detection have led physicians to consider the value of screening patients with ADPKD for unruptured intracranial aneurysms. The sensitivity and specificity of high-resolution computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging for the diagnosis of small intracranial aneurysms have been disappointing. To determine the value of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), 85 patients with ADPKD without symptoms related to an intracranial aneurysm and 2 patients with ADPKD presenting with a subarachnoid hemorrhage or a suspected aneurysmal leak were studied. MRA was performed with the Multisequence Vascular Package (GE Medical Systems) with use of three-dimensional time-of-flight and three-dimensional phase-contrast techniques, and postprocessing maximum intensity projection images were generated to eliminate the problem of overlapping vessels. Asymptomatic intracranial aneurysms were detected in 6 (22%) of 27 patients with and 3 (5%) of 56 patients without a family history of intracranial aneurysm or subarachnoid hemorrhage (P = 0.02, information missing in 2 patients) and in the 2 patients who presented with a symptomatic aneurysm. A stepwise logistic regression analysis indicated that a family history of intracranial aneurysm or subarachnoid hemorrhage was independently associated with the presence of intracranial aneurysms. All of the aneurysms were ≤6.5 mm in diameter. These observations, together with previous experience with high-resolution computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, suggest that MRA is superior to computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in the presymptomatic detection of intracranial aneurysms and confirm a familial clustering of intracranial aneurysms in ADPKD.