Reproducibility of basilar arterial atherosclerotic plaque employing dark blood high resolution MRI at 3T

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Congress:

ECR 2016

Poster Number:

C-0430

Type:

Scientific Exhibit

Keywords:

Vascular, CNS, Neuroradiology brain, MR, MR-Angiography, Imaging sequences, Arteriosclerosis, Ischaemia / Infarction

Authors:

L. Chen, Q. Liu, X. Tian, Q. Zhan, C. Ma, Y. Jiang, W. Peng, B. Tian, J.-P. Lu; Shanghai/CN

DOI:

10.1594/ecr2016/C-0430

DOI-Link:

https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/ecr2016/C-0430

Fig. 1: Example of lumen and wall boundaries for quantitative analysis of the T2W image.

Table 1: ICC and CV of PA, SR and PPB in evaluation of interscan variability.

Table 2: ICC and CV of PA, SR and PPB in evaluation of intraobserver variability.

Fig. 2: Bland-Altman plot of intrascan variability for plaque area measurements

Aims and objectives

Intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) is the most common cause of ischemic stroke worldwide, especially among patients of Asian and Hispanic ancestry [1-3]. Basilar atherosclerotic plaque is usually observed in patients with ischemic strokes and transientischemic attacks of the posterior cerebral circulation [4]. Advanced MRI technology, especially at 3T field strength, offers significant improvement in signal-to-noise, vessel wall to lumen contrast-to-noise ratio and image quality compared to imaging at 1.5T [5]. Dark blood high-resolution MR imaging (HRMRI) has emerged in recent years as an effective tool...

Methods and materials

Subjects Ten patients (eight males, two females, mean age 61 years) with >30% stenosis as identified by conventional MRA were recruited. This study was approved by the local institutional review board and written informed consent was obtained from each subject. MRI Protocols All imaging was performed on a 3T MR system using a standard 20-channal phased-array head/neck coil. All patients underwent repeated MRI scan sessions of basilar artery vessel wall with two protocols: 3D time of flight (TOF) and 2D T2 weighted turbo spin echo...

Results

Statistical results of interscan and intraobserver reproducibility are presented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. For interscan reproducibility, ICCs were excellent for PA (0.975), SR (0.952) and PPB (0.941), and the CVs of interscan measurements were ranged from 7.52% to 9.17%. For intraobserver reproducibility, ICCs were excellent for PA (0.988), SR (0.971) and PPB (0.970), respectively, and the CVs of intraobserver measurements were ranged from 6.04% to 6.92%. Moreover, the intervals defined by Bland-Altman plots of PA, SR and PPB were narrow in comparison to...

Conclusion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of scan and rescan variability of PA, SR and PPB of the basilar atherosclerotic plaque using HRMRI at 3T. Compared imaging at 1.5T, 3T field strength offers paramount improvement in image quality in evaluation of intracranial arterial atherosclerosis [5, 15]. In the present study, we employed dark blood high resolution T2W images for quantitative analysis owing to the contrast between the lumen and plaque, inner wall and outer wall boundaries, and cerebral spinal fluid...

Personal information

Luguang Chen, M.S., Department of Radiology, Changhai Hospital of Shanghai, No.168 Changhai Road, Shanghai, China. Email:[email protected]

References

1. Suh, D.C., Lee, S.H., Kim, K.R., et al., Pattern of atherosclerotic carotid stenosis in Korean patients with stroke: different involvement of intracranial versus extracranial vessels. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol, 2003. 24(2): p. 239-44. 2. Gorelick, P.B., Wong, K.S., Bae, H.J., et al., Large artery intracranial occlusive disease: a large worldwide burden but a relatively neglected frontier. Stroke, 2008. 39(8): p. 2396-9. 3. Rincon, F., Sacco, R.L., Kranwinkel, G., et al., Incidence and risk factors of intracranial atherosclerotic stroke: the Northern Manhattan Stroke Study. Cerebrovasc...