Identification & Quantification of Atherosclerosis in Arterial Vessels using an Interventional 3T Loopless Detector

Di Qian^1,2, Paul A Bottomley^1,2

Fibrous cap thickness is key to assessing vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque. MRI is intrinsically well-suited for plaque imaging, but has lacked the spatial resolution needed to resolve the cap and other pathologies. At 3T, the intravascular loopless MRI detector offers ~4-fold higher signal-to-noise ratio than at 1.5T, and can be made safe from RF heating. Here we investigate its use for identifying plaques for subsequent high-resolution 80m imaging of lesion and vessel wall morphology in diseased human arterial specimens in vitro, correlating MRI measurements of fibrous caps with histology. Feasibility of the approach is demonstrated in a rabbit aorta in vivo.