Maria del Rosario Lopez Gonzalez1,
Sin Yee Foo2, William M. Holmes3, Willie Stewart4,
George Welch5, Barrie Condon6, Keith W. Muir1,
Kirsten Forbes7
1Institute
of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland,
United Kingdom; 2School of Medicine, Glasgow, Scotland, United
Kingdom; 3GEMRIC, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology,
University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom; 4Department
of Neuropathology, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, United
Kingdom; 5Vascular Surgery, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow,
Scotland, United Kingdom; 6MRI, Southern General Hospital,
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom; 7Institute of Neurological
Sciences, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Carotid plaque MR imaging was used to assess composition and structure of atherosclerotic plaque. The method involved the validation of in-vivo (3T) and ultra-high resolution ex-vivo (7T) MRI and histopathological examination in a series of patients. Patients all presented with acute cerebral ischaemic, within four weeks before MRI scanning. Patients underwent endarterectomy and specimens were scanned at 7T. Atherorosclerotic plaque segmentation was carried out using a combination of four/three (3T/7T) MR contrast weighting images.