Evaluation of the intracranial vessel wall characteristics in deep perforator and superficial perforator infarcts using high resolution magnetic resonance imaging
WU Fang
DU Xiangying
WU Ye
YANG Xiaoxu
LU Jie
SONG Haiqing
MA Qingfeng
YANG Qi
Abstract：Objective To investigate intracranial vessel wall characteristics between superficial perforator infarction (SPI) and deep perforator infarction (DPI) by using whole-brain high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HRMRI), and to clarify their underlying pathogenesis. Methods Forty-one patients (31 male, 10 female;mean age, 51.9 years ±11.33) with recent SPI or DPI were retrospectively enrolled and whole-brain HRMRI was performed. HRMRI protocol included a 3D T1 weighted technique known as inversion-recovery ( IR ) prepared SPACE . The presence of intracranial atherosclerotic plaque within the responsible vessels, stenosis degree, remodeling index (RI), and plaque enhancement at the most stenotic site of intracranial atheroma were analyzed. Differences between two groups were then assessed using t-test or Mann-Whit-ney U test for continuous variables and Chi-square test for categorical variables. A P-value of less than 0.05 indicated statis tical significance. Results Fourteen of 41 (34.1%) were patients with SPI and 27 (65.9%) were patients wtih DPI. HRMRI detected intracranial atherosclerotic plaques in 13 (92.9%) of 14 patients with SPI and 15 (55.6%) of 27 patients with DPI. The occurrence of intracranial large-vessel atherosclerotic plaques was greater in the SPI group than in the DPI group (P=0.038). Patients with SPI had severer stenosis degree than patients with DPI (71.20%±29.46%vs. 44.01%±28.24%;P=0.019). The RI and plaque enhancement did not differ between the two groups (P=0.865, 0.538, respectively). Conclusions Small vessel disease or parental artery plaques blocking orifice of the perforating artery may be the reason of DPI. Whereas large-vessel atherosclerotic disease may be the main reason of SPI. These two types of infarction have different vascular pathophysiologies in terms of stenosis degree.
Keywords：High-resolution MRIIntracranial artery imagingAtherosclerosisSuperficial perforator infarctsDeep perforator infarcts
Publication Date：2017-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 501-505 )