Exploration of the relationship between the enhanecment degree and location of basilar artery plaque and infar ction with MRI3D-SPACE

ZHANG Hongmei; SUN Xueyuan; CHEN Xin; NIU Yanxin

Abstract：Obejctive By use of 3T 3D-SPACE sequence, to reveal atherosclerotic plaquesplaque of basal arterial wall in pa -tients with symptomatic atherosclerosis ,and to assess its relationship with the newly infarction via the plaque morphological fea -tures and enhanced degrees .Methods 103 patients with symptomatic with posterior circulation ischemia were subjected to 3D-SPACE sequence , the signal strength of the basal artery plaque and adjacent normal brain gray matter was measured , and the rela-tive strengthening of basilar artery plaque was obtained , which was divided into:mild ( 1 % ~10%) , moderate enhancement (10%~100%), and significant enhancement ( >100%).Then, the relationship between both acute joint subacute infarction (group A), chronic and no infarction (group B) with basilar artery plaque enhancement degree was studied .DWI image was used to assess whether the recent infarcts occurred or not .Results Of those 100 patients who were included in the statistics , 46 were suffered from acute infarction , 26 from subacute infarction , and 15 from chronic infarction , and 13had no infarction .The infarct parts included the brain stem , bridge arm, cerebellum, occipital lobe, the midbrain and hypothalamus and medulla oblon -gata.3 D-SPACE sequence can display the basal artery plaque with multi -angle.70 cases presented with partial eccentricity plaque , and for the plaque located in basilar artery abdominal wall , the infarction was more apt to occur .Infarction occurred more often in the plaque with relative enhancement degree >100%.The plaque enhanced degrees between Group A and B had statisti-cal significance .Conclusion 3D -SPACE sequence can comprehensively assess the relationship between morphology of basilar ar -tery plaque and enhanced features in a relatively short time , which can be used as a basis for the clinical diagnosis and differential diagnosis of cerebral infarction .