Creating a One-Stop Shop? 3D Black Blood Vessel Wall Imaging Would Combine Information of Luminal Severity & Plaque Composition

Li Dong¹, Hao Shen², Xiaojie Zhang¹, Wei Yu¹, Zhaoqi Zhang¹, Hua Guo³, Ren Wang¹, Dongxu Lu¹, Chun Yuan^3,4

We hypothesized that 3D black blood, a single sequence, can quantify carotid stenosis and plaque composition simultaneously. Bilateral carotid arteries from 9 symptomatic subjects underwent 3D SPGR and MRA scans. There was an excellent correlation of measuring stenosis between 3D SPGR and MRA (r = 0.95, p < 0.001). For those arteries with corresponding histology (n = 5), good agreements in identifying major plaque components were found. Therefore, 3D black blood images allow interactive reconstruction in arbitrary planes providing a more thorough visualization of luminal severity and plaque components.