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Abstract #3693

DWI of Carotid Atheroma - Detection of Lipid Rich Necrotic Core

Victoria Eleanor Louise Young1, Andrew J. Patterson1, Umar Sadat1, David J. Bowden1, Martin J. Graves1,2, Andrew N. Priest1,2, Tjun Y. Tang1, Jeremy N. Skepper3, Peter J. Kirkpatrick4, Jonathan H. Gillard1

1University Department of Radiology, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom; 2Department of Medical Physics, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom; 3Multi-imaging Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom; 4Department of Neurosurgery, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom


Lipid-rich necrotic core (LR/NC), which is difficult to identify on MRI, has importance in predicting risk of clinical events. Previous studies using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for ex-vivo imaging have demonstrated a potential role for DWI. The aim of this study was to examine if DWI can be applied in vivo to differentiate LR/NC from fibrous cap. 28 patients with confirmed carotid atheroma were imaged at 1.5T using a dedicated 4 channel phased-array carotid coil and ADC maps produced. A significant difference was found between the ADC values for LR/NC and fibrous cap. DWI may provide addition information for plaque classification.