Key result
Head and neck radiation linked to accelerated carotid atherosclerosis detectable on dental panoramic radiographs.
Why the study?
Radiation therapy for head and neck malignancies may damage carotid arteries and initiate or accelerate atherosclerosis, but clinical recognition and screening practices are not well established.
Case Report
Dentists treating patients with prior head and neck radiation should screen panoramic radiographs for carotid atheroma calcifications to prompt ultrasound referral.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Alerts dentists to carotid calcifications post-radiation without changing practice; hypothesis-generating for cardiovascular risk links.
Radiation therapy (RT) is a component of the treatment of patients with head and neck malignancies. This therapy may damage the nearby carotid arteries, thereby initiating or accelerating the atherosclerotic process (atheroma formation). Dentists treating patients who have been irradiated should examine the patient's panoramic radiograph for evidence of atheroma-like calcifications, which appear 1.5 to 2.5 cm posterior and inferior to the angle of the mandible. Patients with evidence of such lesions should be referred to their primary care physician with the suggestion that an ultrasound examination of the carotid arteries is indicated.
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Friedlander et al. (2009) conducted a case report in Head and neck malignancies treated with radiation therapy. Radiation therapy was evaluated on Carotid artery atherosclerosis (atheroma formation). Radiation therapy for head and neck malignancies may accelerate carotid artery atherosclerosis, which can be detected as atheroma-like calcifications on panoramic radiographs by dentists.
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