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

• Published in: Radiology research and practice Vol. 2021; pp. 9499420 - 7
• Main Authors: Csizmadia, Sándor, Fodor, Gergely H., Palkó, András, Vörös, Erika
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Egypt Hindawi 15.10.2021; Hindawi Limited; Wiley
• Subjects: Acidosis; Angiography; Blood pressure; Blood tests; Body size; Care and treatment; Carotid body; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Computed tomography; Congestive heart failure; CT imaging; Heart attack; Heart attacks; Heart failure; Hematology; Hypertension; Liver cirrhosis; Lung diseases; Lung diseases, Obstructive; Medical imaging; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Metabolism; Myocardial infarction; Nervous system; Obstructive lung disease; Patients; Respiratory diseases; Software; Statistical analysis; Sympathetic nervous system; Variance analysis; Hungary; United States > US; Connecticut
• ISSN: 2090-1941; 2090-195X
• DOI: 10.1155/2021/9499420

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.