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.
Keywords