Intracranial Arterial Wall Imaging using 3D High Isotropic-Resolution Black Blood MRI at 3.0 T

Ye Qiao¹, David A. Steinman², Qin Qin¹, Maryam Etesami¹, Michael Schr^1,3, Brad C. Astor¹, Bruce A. Wasserman¹

Only a few studies have attempted to image intracranial atherosclerosis by MRI, all using a 2D black blood MRI technique. This approach is suboptimal for imaging intracranial vessel walls given the small size and inherent curving course of these vessels. We developed a 3D high-resolution Volumetric ISotropic TSE Acquisition (VISTA) sequence (0.5 isotropic) for evaluating intracranial vessels at 3.0T to minimize the partial volume effects and signal constraints of 2D sequences. Our sequence provides reliable measurements of intracranial vessel wall size and may make it possible to discern pathological changes from the normal vessel wall.