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. 2015 Jun 5;128(11):1433-7.
doi: 10.4103/0366-6999.157633.

Plaques of Nonstenotic Basilar Arteries with Isolated Pontine Infarction on Three-dimensional High Isotropic Resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Xian-Jin Zhu, Wei-Jian Jiang, Lei Liu, Li-Bin Hu, Wu Wang, Zun-Jing Liu  1
Affiliations

Plaques of Nonstenotic Basilar Arteries with Isolated Pontine Infarction on Three-dimensional High Isotropic Resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Xian-Jin Zhu et al. Chin Med J (Engl). .

Abstract

Background: There are few studies for evaluating plaque characteristics of nonstenotic basilar arteries (BA). Our aim was to determine entire BA plaques with a three-dimensional volumetric isotropic turbo spin-echo acquisition (VISTA) and investigate the differences between the patients with and without isolated pontine infarction (IPI).

Methods: Twenty-four consecutive symptomatic patients with nonstenotic BA on time of flight magnetic resonance angiography (TOF MRA) were enrolled from China-Japan Friendship Hospital between January 2014 and December 2014. BA was classified as "normal" or "irregular" based on TOF MRA, and "normal wall", "slight wall-thickening", and "plaque" based on three-dimensional VISTA images. Outcomes from MRA and VISTA were compared. Patients were categorized as IPI and non-IPI groups based on the diffusion-weighted imaging. Clinical and plaque characteristics were compared between the two groups.

Results: A total of 1024 image slices including 311 (30.37%) plaque slices, 427 (41.70%) slight wall-thickening slices, and 286 (27.93%) normal wall slices for the entire BA from 23 patients were finally included for analysis. VISTA images detected plaques in all the 9 (100%) irregular MRA patients and 7 of 14 (50%) normal MRA patients. IPI was found in 11 (47.83%) patients. Compared to non-IPI group, the IPI group had a higher percentage of plaque slices (P = 0.001) and lower percentage of normal wall slices (P = 0.014) than non-IPI group.

Conclusions: Three-dimensional VISTA images enable detection of BA plaques not visualized by MRA. BA plaques could be found in both the IPI and non-IPI group. However, IPI group showed plaques more extensively in BA than the non-IPI group.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
High isotropic resolution magnetic resonance imaging of the basilar artery showing normal wall (a, arrow), slight wall-thickening (b, arrow), and plaque (c, arrow).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Normal basilar artery on magnetic resonance angiography (a, arrow) with isolated pontine infarction (b). High isotropic resolution magnetic resonance imaging showed an eccentric plaque on the coronal reconstructed image (c, arrow) and axial reconstructed image (d, arrow).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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