Seong-Eun Kim1, Eun-Kee Jeong1,
Xianfeung Shi2, Gerald S. Treiman3, Dennis L. Parker1
1Utah Center for Advanced Imaging
Research, Department of Radiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT,
United States; 2Brain Research Institute, University of Utah; 3Department
of Veterans Affairs, VASLCHCS, Salt Lake City, UT
Atherosclerotic plaque characterization by MRI is generally based on the signal intensities and morphological appearance in multi-contrast images, but conventional contrast images are unable to provide the full quantification of high risk plaque components. Iron has consistently been found in higher concentrations in atherosclerotic plaque compared to tissue. Iron may be incorporated into hemoglobin or bound to the storage proteins ferritin and hemosiderin. It has been reported that intraplaque T2* measurement distinguished symptom-producing from non-symptom producing plaques in patients. In this work we introduce simultaneous measurement of T1 and T2* of atherosclerotic plaque using a novel sigleshot sequence, 2D ss-SGSTEPI.