Early diagnosis of atherosclerosis with panoramic radiographs: a review

Carotid artery disease has been linked with cerebral vascular accident, also known as stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, or cerebral ischemia. It is caused by narrowing or obstruction of arteries in the neck (the carotid arteries) that are responsible for transporting blood from the aorta to the brain. Panoramic radiographs are used in dentistry to show both dental arches as a supplement to the clinical dental examination. The objective of this study is to highlight the importance of panoramic radiographs for diagnosis of arterial disease, by means of a bibliographic review. The PubMed database was searched using the keywords “atherosclerosis” and “panoramic”, with the filters “last 5 years” and “humans”. Twenty articles were identified, six of which were chosen for this study because they were open access. The review concluded that panoramic radiographs enable early diagnosis of carotid artery calcification, resulting in earlier interventions, and offer an accessible cost.