Evaluation of middle cerebral artery atherosclerotic plaque by high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging

LI Chunling; LIN Tianfang

Abstract：Objective To explore the evaluation of middle cerebral artery atherosclerotic plaque by high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. Methods 42 patients with middle cerebral artery atherosclerosis were examined by 3.0 T magnetic reso-nance. Diffusion-weighted imaging,3D time-leap imaging, T1-weighted imaging, T2-weighted imaging, proton-weighted imaging were used. The distribution and thickness of plaques in middle and left arterial stenosy were observed. The patches were classified into equal signals,high signals, low signals and mixed signals. According to the results of diffusion-weighted imaging, the pa-tients were divided into acute and non-acute stroke groups,and the plaque characteristics were compared between the two groups. The differences between the observer's own and the different observers were analyzed by intra-group correlation coefficient analysis of plaque and plaque location. Results Plaque was the most easy to form the location of the anterior cerebral artery in the anteri-or wall,the thickness of the main patch was 0.5~1.5 mm;The incidence of plaque enhancement,T1-weighted imaging and T2-weighted imaging were significantly higher in the acute stroke group than in the non-acute stroke group( P <0.05). 3.0 T mag-netic resonance to determine whether the plaque and the plaque site of the inhibition was good(intra-group correlation coefficient> 0.75). Conclusion High-resolution magnetic resonance in the assessment of atherosclerosis in the arterial plaque distribu-tion,thickness and so on has obvious advantages and a high degree of credibility. Through the determination of plaque enhance-ment rate and plaque mixed signal can be a certain degree of acute stroke prediction.