High Body Mass Index and Change in Cervical Carotid Artery Position on Serial Scans: A Retrospective Study of an Unexplained Phenomenon.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between increased body mass index (BMI) and abdominal circumference and prevalence of the change of position of common and internal carotid arteries on serial imaging, termed wandering carotid artery. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging neck scans and determined whether the common and internal carotid arteries moved in position on serial scans. We correlated patients' demographic and medical information along with abdominal circumference, BMI, location of the aortic arch, and area of soft tissue surrounding the carotid arteries with the prevalence of a wandering carotid artery. Results: Computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging neck performed on 56 randomly selected patients between 2017 and 2020 were reviewed. A total of 42.9% of the patients had awandering common or internal carotid artery. The abdominal circumference and BMI were significantly higher in the patients with wandering carotid arteries compared with the patients without (abdominal circumference = 102.9 +/- 14.13 vs 91.61 +/- 13.9 cm [P = 0.01] and BMI = 34.27 +/- 8.58 [obese] vs 26.21 +/- 4.89 [overweight, P = 0.0001]). After adjusting for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, atherosclerosis grade, and aortic arch location, the odds ofwandering carotid arterywas 1.23 (95% confidence interval, 1.1-1.44) times higher for every one-unit increase in BMI. Conclusions: There is a higher prevalence of wandering common and internal carotid arteries in obese patientswith large abdominal circumference irrespective of age, sex, diabetes, hypertension, or carotid atherosclerosis.