Abstract #1168

In Vivo Assessment of Adventitial Vasa Vasorum in Patients with Symptomatic Carotid Plaques: A Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Study.

Jie Sun¹, Yan Song², William S. Kerwin¹, Huijun Chen¹, Dong Li³, Daniel S. Hippe¹, Min Chen², Cheng Zhou², Thomas S. Hatsukami⁴, Chun Yuan¹

¹Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States; ²Radiology, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, China; ³Radiology, Anzhen Hospital, Beijing, China; ⁴Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States

Substantial evidence indicates that adventitial vasa vasorum (VV) is actively involved in the atherogenic process. However, non-invasive methods to study adventitial VV quantitatively are limited. This study characterized adventitial VV in symptomatic patients using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI). Adventitial Ktrans derived from DCE-MRI was found to be closely associated with IPH and clinical symptom status. DCE-MRI provides a noninvasive way to study adventitial VV in patients and may be useful in understanding plaque progression or individual risk stratification.