title: PLACD-7T Study: Atherosclerotic Carotid Plaque Components Correlated with Cerebral Damage at 7 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In patients with carotid artery stenosis histological plaque composition is associated with plaque stability and with presenting symptomatology. Preferentially, plaque vulnerability should be taken into account in pre-operative work-up of patients with severe carotid artery stenosis. However, currently no appropriate and conclusive (non-) invasive technique to differentiate between the high and low risk carotid artery plaque in vivo is available. We propose that 7 Tesla human high resolution MRI scanning will visualize carotid plaque characteristics more precisely and will enable correlation of these specific components with cerebral damage.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the PlaCD-7T study is 1: to correlate 7T imaging with carotid plaque histology (gold standard); and 2: to correlate plaque characteristics with cerebral damage ((clinically silent) cerebral (micro) infarcts or bleeds) on 7 Tesla high resolution (HR) MRI.
  
  
  METHODS
  We propose a single center prospective study for either symptomatic or asymptomatic patients with haemodynamic significant (70%) stenosis of at least one of the carotid arteries. The Athero-Express (AE) biobank histological analysis will be derived according to standard protocol. Patients included in the AE and our prospective study will undergo a pre-operative 7 Tesla HR-MRI scan of both the head and neck area.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We hypothesize that the 7 Tesla MRI scanner will allow early identification of high risk carotid plaques being associated with micro infarcted cerebral areas, and will thus be able to identify patients with a high risk of periprocedural stroke, by identification of surrogate measures of increased cardiovascular risk.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Vascular Surgery, Utrecht, the Netherlands, Interuniversity Cardiology Institute of the Netherlands (ICIN), Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: den Hartog
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bovens
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Koning
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hendrikse
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pasterkamp
authors.forename: F L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Moll
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: de Borst