Abstract #2176

Saam T, Ferguson M, Yuan C, Cai J

Pathologically, the risk of atherosclerotic plaque is related to plaque components, especially the status of the fibrous cap which separates vessel lumen from plaque bulk. Our goals are 1) to design a MRI-based Carotid Atherosclerosis Scoring (CAS) system to assign scores based on the topography of plaque components and the status of the fibrous cap, 2) to validate these scores by comparing MRI to histology, and 3) to summarize these quantitative entries into a risk score that can be used clinically for risk assessment. This new CAS system is highly correlated to histologic findings. Higher scores were significantly associated with the presence of recent ipsilateral TIA, stroke or amaurosis fugax.