Meeting Banner
Abstract #3777

Direct Imaging and Quantification of Carotid Plaque Calcification (CPC) Using Ultrashort TE Pulse Sequences

Jiang Du1, Jacqueline Corbeil1, Richard Znamirowski1, Michael Peterson2, Niren Angle3, Graeme Bydder1, Andrew Kahn4

1Radiology, University of California, San Diego, CA, United States; 2Pathology, University of California, San Diego, CA, United States; 3Surgery, University of California, San Diego, CA, United States; 4Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA, United States


Carotid plaque vulnerability is dependent upon its tissue constituents, which may include fibrous tissue, lipid core, intra-plaque plaque hemorrhage as well as calcification. Clinical MR sequences have been employed to characterize the long T2 plaque components. Carotid plaque calcification (CPC) is undetectable with conventional clinical MR sequences. Here we describe the use of a 2D ultrashort TE (UTE) sequence combined with efficient long T2 suppression to image and characterize CPC (T2, T2* and water content) using a clinical 3T scanner. High spatial resolution micro-CT images were also acquired for comparison and validation.