title: Reproducibility of high-resolution MRI for the middle cerebral artery plaque at 3T.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the reproducibility of HR-MRI for the identification of MCA atherosclerotic plaque components and quantification of stenosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-three consecutive subjects who initially had ischemic stroke or asymptomatic MCA stenosis (>50%) were enrolled in the study. All subjects were scanned using 3.0T MRI. Two independent readers reviewed all images and one reader reevaluated all images four weeks later. The tissue components of plaques were analyzed qualitatively and the vessels were quantitative measured.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HR-MRI displayed the artery wall and lumen clearly. The intra-observer reproducibility was excellent for the identification of plaques (kappa [κ]=0.96; 95% CI: 0.83-1.04) and contrast enhancement (κ=0.89; 0.78-0.95); it was substantial for intra-plaque hemorrhage (κ=0.79; 0.57-0.96) and the fibrous cap (κ=0.65; 0.42-0.86). The inter-observer reproducibility was excellent for plaques (κ=0.92; 0.73-1.06), substantial for contrast enhancement (κ=0.80; 0.65-0.93), intra-plaque hemorrhage (κ=0.68; 0.47-0.92) and moderate for the fibrous cap (κ=0.58; 0.44-0.79). Both intra-observer and inter-observer reproducibility were excellent for quantitative vessel, lumen and wall measurements with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.91 to 0.97 and 0.87 to 0.96, respectively. However, vessel and wall areas and the intervals defined by the Bland-Altman plots were wide in comparison to the mean.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The identification of MCA atherosclerotic plaque components and the quantification of vessel and lumen measurements are reproducible. The reproducibility is overall acceptable. HR-MRI may provide a useful tool for clinical risk evaluation in MCA atherosclerosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510080, China.
authors.forename: Wan-Qun
authors.initials: WQ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510080, China. Electronic address: cjr.huangbiao@vip.163.com.
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510080, China.
authors.forename: Xin-Tong
authors.initials: XT
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510080, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510080, China.
authors.forename: Pei-Jun
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, China. Electronic address: zhuwenzhen@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Wen-Zhen
authors.initials: WZ
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D020244:Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000473:pathology*; D002537:Intracranial Arteriosclerosis / Q000473:pathology*; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020768:Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000473:pathology*; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Atherosclerosis; High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging; Middle cerebral artery; Plaque analysis