Yoshimitsu Ohgiya1, Nobuyuki Ohike 2, Naomi Yagi 1, Hiroto Sasamori1, Jiro Munechika 1, Masanori Hirose 1, and Takehiko Gokan 1
The
purpose of this study was to investigate whether 3D turbo spin-echo (TSE) SPACE
sequence can evaluate plaque characteristics of the carotid artery.
Mann-Whitney test was used to examine differences in the contrast ratio (CR)
between soft plaques and fibrous plaques on T1- and T2-weighted images. The
mean CR of the soft plaques (1.54 ± 0.25) was significantly higher than that of
the fibrous plaques (1.17 ± 0.13) (p < 0.001) on T1-weighted images. In
conclusion, T1-weighted TSE SPACE sequence can evaluate main components of
plaques in the carotid artery with high sensitivity and specificity.
