Can the Shape and Size of Brain Arteries Predict Your Risk of a Stroke?

The size and shape of the blood vessels in your brain may help predict your risk of an often-fatal type of stroke, called an aneurysm, a new study finds.

Nearly half of those who have a burst brain aneurysm die. Only one-third will recover without disabilities, the study authors say.

Brain aneurysms cause almost 500,000 deaths worldwide each year, half of them in people under age 50, with women and at greater risk. Additionally, Blacks are twice as likely as whites to have a brain aneurysm rupture.

An aneurysm is a bulge in an artery wall.

“A subarachnoid hemorrhage is the most dangerous type of stroke and occurs when a brain aneurysm leaks or ruptures, causing bleeding into the brain, killing more than 50% of affected people,” Dr. Arjun Burlakoti, a University of South Australia neuroanatomist says.

“Based on our findings, MRI and CT angiograms will determine whether people have asymmetrical brain arteries and, if so, they should be screened regularly for cerebral aneurysms,” Burlakoti says.

What causes aneurysms?

The brain images of people with aneurysms show that the four arteries that enter the brain box, divide into segments and supply blood to the brain, were not in proportion to each other.