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Visualization of the lenticulostriate arteries at 3T using black-blood T1-weighted intracranial vessel wall imaging: comparison with 7T TOF-MRA

  • Magnetic Resonance
  • Published:
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Abstract

Objectives

The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of using intracranial T1-weighted vessel wall imaging (VWI) to visualize the lenticulostriate arteries (LSAs) at 3T.

Material and methods

Thirteen healthy volunteers were examined with VWI at 3T and TOF-MRA at 7T during the same day. On the vascular skeletons obtained by manual tracing, the number of stems and branches of LSAs were counted. On the most prominent branch in every hemisphere, the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), the full length and the local length (5-15 mm above MCAs) were measured and compared between the two methods. Nine stroke patients with intracranial artery stenosis were also recruited into the study. The branches of LSAs were compared between the symptomatic and asymptomatic side.

Results

The extracted vascular trees were in good agreement between 7T TOF-MRA and 3T VWI. The two acquisitions showed similar numbers of the LSA stems. The number of branches revealed by 3T VWI was slightly lower than 7T TOF. The full lengths were slightly lower by VWI at 3T (p = 0.011, ICC = 0.917). The measured local lengths (5-15 mm from MCAs) showed high coherence between VWI and TOF-MRA (p = 0.098, ICC = 0.970). In stroke patients, 12 plaques were identified on MCA segments, and nine plaques were located on the symptomatic side. The average numbers of LSA visualized by 3T VWI were 4.3±1.3 on the symptomatic side and 5.0±1.1 on the asymptomatic side.

Conclusion

3T VWI is capable of depicting LSAs, particularly the stems and the proximal segments, with comparable image quality to that of 7T TOF-MRA.

Key Points

• T1-weighted intracranial VWI at 3T allows for black-blood MR angiography of lenticulostriate artery.

• 3T intracranial VWI depicts the stems and proximal segments of the lenticulostriate arteries comparable to 7T TOF-MRA.

• It is feasible to assess both large vessel wall lesions and lenticulostriate vasculopathy in one scan.

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Abbreviations

3D:

Three-dimensional

7T:

7 Tesla

CNR:

Contrast-to-noise ratio

CR:

Contrast ratio

CSF:

Cerebrospinal fluid

DSA:

Digital subtraction angiography

FSBB:

Flow-sensitive black-blood

ICC:

Intraclass correlation coefficient

LSA:

Lenticulostriate artery

MCA:

Middle cerebral artery

MinIP:

Minimum intensity projections

MIP:

Maximum intensity projections

MPR:

Multi-planar reconstruction

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

SPACE:

Sampling perfection with application-optimized contrast using different flip angle evolutions

T1w:

T1-weighted

TOF-MRA:

Time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography

VWI:

Vessel wall imaging

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Funding

This study has received funding by Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (7184226), Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST (2017QNRC001), Ministry of Science and Technology of China grant (2015CB351701), National Science Foundation of China (NSFC 91749127), American Heart Association (15SDG25710441), and National Institutes of Health (NHLBI 2R01HL096119).

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Correspondence to Qi Yang.

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Guarantor

The scientific guarantor of this publication is Qi Yang.

Conflict of interest

Dr. Jing An is an employee of Siemens Shenzhen Magnetic Resonance Ltd. Other authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies, whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article.

Statistics and biometry

Zhuang Tao kindly provided statistical advice for this manuscript.

Informed consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects (patients) in this study.

Ethical approval

Institutional Review Board approval was obtained.

Methodology

• prospective

• observational

• performed at one institution

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Zhang, Z., Fan, Z., Kong, Q. et al. Visualization of the lenticulostriate arteries at 3T using black-blood T1-weighted intracranial vessel wall imaging: comparison with 7T TOF-MRA. Eur Radiol 29, 1452–1459 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5701-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5701-y

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