title: Clinical value of black-blood high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging for intracranial atherosclerotic plaques.
abstract: The present study evaluated the value of black-blood high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HRMRI) for the visualization of intracranial atherosclerosis (ICAS) plaques. A total of 110 patients with cerebral artery or vertebrobasilar stenosis, vessel occlusion or a significantly weakened signal in black-blood magnetic resonance angiography (MRA; three-dimensional time-of-flight) were examined. Black-blood MRA was used to observe whether plaques were present in the abnormal vascular walls. Among the 110 patients with cerebral infarction, 16 cases presented with no significant abnormality of the lumen and walls, while plaques were observed in 94 cases. The plaques were categorized according to their signal characteristics, which resulted in the identification of four cases of type I and II plaques, 15 cases of type III, 26 cases of type IV and V, 23 cases of type VI, 11 cases of type VII, 14 cases of type VIII and one case of a mixed plaque. In summary, 3.0 T black-blood HRMRI was demonstrated to objectively exhibit characteristics of various types of ICAS plaques. Therefore, this imaging technique may be applied as a key method for the clinical non-invasive determination of ICAS plaques.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Haiqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yifei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zuojun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Caiying
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lixia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Q I
authors.initials: QI
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: black-blood; bright-blood; intracranial atherosclerosis; magnetic resonance imaging