title: Vessel wall differences between middle cerebral artery and basilar artery plaques on magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: A recent study showed that posterior circulation plaques have a greater capacity for positive remodeling in a non-Asian population. We aimed to investigate if the features of plaques in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) were different from those in the basilar artery (BA) in a northern Chinese population. We retrospectively analysed the records of 71 consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke. All patients had at least one MCA or BA plaque with early or mild (<50% stenosis) atherosclerosis identified using vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging. The remodeling ratio, eccentricity index, and plaque range were compared between MCA and BA plaques using multilevel analysis. A total of 101 plaques were included. There were 70 plaques located in the MCA and 31 plaques located in the BA. The features of non-advanced atherosclerotic plaques did not differ between the MCA and BA when accounting for the degree of stenosis or plaque burden in a northern Chinese population. Symptomatic plaques were associated with a higher eccentricity index and smaller plaque range than asymptomatic plaques under the same plaque burden. Further studies are warranted to investigate the progression of atherosclerosis in different intracranial arteries.
authors.affiliation: Stroke Center, Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Xinmin Street 71#, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Peng-Peng
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Stroke Center, Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Xinmin Street 71#, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Xinmin Street 71#, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Wei
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Xinmin Street 71#, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Stroke Center, Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Xinmin Street 71#, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Stroke Center, Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Xinmin Street 71#, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Zhen-Ni
authors.initials: ZN
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Stroke Center, Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Xinmin Street 71#, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Stroke Center, Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Xinmin Street 71#, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D001488:Basilar Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020768:Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D058226:Plaque, Atherosclerotic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*