Age and gender related prevalence of intracranial calcifications in CT imaging; data from 12,000 healthy subjects

•Incidence of vascular calcifications, dural calcifications and choroid plexus calcifications increased with aging.•Incidence of BGC were unchanged over ages.•Pineal calcification was the most common physiologic calcification type in overall study population.•Choroid plexus calcification was the most common calcification type after fifth decade.•Male dominance was present in all calcification types except for basal ganglia calcifications.

PurposeLocation and extent of intracranial calcifications have been detected accurately with the use of CT technology and since, many clinical or pathological entities have been linked to these calcifications. Our purpose is to provide data regarding the prevalence of calcifications in various locations in brain.Material and methodsWe retrospectively examined 11,941 subjects who underwent non-contrast enhanced brain CT examination. We determined the prevalence of choroid plexus, pineal gland, habenula, dura mater, basal ganglia and vascular calcifications.ResultsOf 11,941 subjects, 70.2% had choroid plexus calcifications. Calcifications were most frequently seen in pineal gland and 71.6% of the study population had pineal calcifications. Habeluna and dural calcifications were present in 19.2% and 12.5% of the population respectively. Basal ganglia calcifications and vascular calcifications only constituted 1.3% and 3.5% of the study population respectively. Male dominance was present in all calcification types except basal ganglia calcifications.ConclusionsShowing associations and dissociations from the literature, our study provides a baseline data regarding the prevalence of various types of intracranial calcifications.