Four inversion recovery MRI in the carotid arteries of plaque.docVIP

 PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 13 Four inversion recovery MRI in the carotid arteries of plaque Of: Cao Zhihong, Liu Yiwen, Geng Daoying, Wang Fei [Keywords:] magnetic resonance imaging, the four inversion recovery sequence, carotid artery, plaque MRI of carotid plaque as the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of stroke caused by the important plaque imaging methods. Although magnetic resonance angiography (MRA can evaluate the degree of stenosis of vascular lumen, but not clear Display the plaque attached to the vessel wall, can not provide the structure and composition information. is generally believed, with a thin fibrous cap and large necrotic center of the plaque rupture easily, leading to the formation of thrombi, causing stroke, and inflammatory response within the plaque is the main cause plaque rupture [1]. “Black blood” technique [2] can inhibit the blood signal, clearly shows the vessel wall to evaluate vessel wall thickness and plaque morphology and structure. In which the black blood contrast enhancement technique is to evaluate the atherosclerotic plaques nerve blood vessel growth and development trend of the inflammatory response [3,4]. but carotid blood flow by MRI is often the impact of artifacts, especially enhanced due to black blood T1 technology enhanced the value of changes in the blood are particularly sensitive [5 ], the artifacts produced serious interference plaque observed. In this study, a new contrast enhancement, “black blood” technique - four inversion recovery sequence (quadruple inversion recovery, QIR, with only the use of space saturated with the conventional “black blood” technique control study to investigate the neck arteries in enhancing the inhibitory effect of artifacts in the final evaluation of their carotid atherosclerosis in the application. 1 Materials and methods 1.1 The selection of volunteers A total of 30 volunteers, of which 20 were in patients with carotid artery plaque, and the other 10 known a