Identification of carotid lipid-rich necrotic core and calcification by 3D magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition gradient-echo imaging

Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Huiyu QiaoXihai Zhao

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the feasibility of three-dimensional MPRAGE in identifying the lipid-rich necrotic core (LRNC) and calcification (CA) of carotid atherosclerotic plaques. Twelve patients (mean age 68.4 ± 11.8 years; 7 males) with carotid atherosclerotic plaques on ultrasound were included and underwent multicontrast magnetic resonance (MR) vessel wall imaging. The contrast enhanced T1W (CE-T1W) images were considered as reference for identifying LRNC. The signal intensity of LRNC, CA, sterno-cleidomastoid muscle and fibrous tissue (FT) was measured on CE-T1W, T1W, T2W, and MPRAGE images, respectively. The relative signal intensity (rSI) of LRNC and CA against muscle or FT was compared among four sequences. Area under the curve (AUC) of rSIs of LRNC, CA and FT against muscle on MPRAGE, T1W and T2W images in discriminating the LRNC or CA from FT and the other plaque component was calculated. Of 352 slices, 88 (25.0%) had LRNC, 31 (8.8%) had CA, 14 (4.0%) had both LRNC and CA, and 247 (70.2%) had no components. Among four imaging sequences, MPRAGE images showed the lowest rSI of LRNC (0.34 ± 0.18) and CA (0.20 ± 0.16) against muscle, followed by T1W (0.48 ± 0.18 and 0.33 ± 0.21), CE-T1W (0.58 ± 0.23 and 0.40 ± 0.21...Continue Reading

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