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. 2015 Jul 10;10(7):e0130878.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0130878. eCollection 2015.

Increasing the Spatial Resolution of 3T Carotid MRI Has No Beneficial Effect for Plaque Component Measurement Reproducibility

Diederik F van Wijk  1 , Aart C Strang  1 , Raphael Duivenvoorden  1 , Dirk-Jan F Enklaar  1 , Aeilko H Zwinderman  2 , Rob J van der Geest  3 , John J P Kastelein  1 , Eric de Groot  1 , Erik S G Stroes  1 , Aart J Nederveen  4
Affiliations

Increasing the Spatial Resolution of 3T Carotid MRI Has No Beneficial Effect for Plaque Component Measurement Reproducibility

Diederik F van Wijk et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Purpose: Different in-plane resolutions have been used for carotid 3T MRI. We compared the reproducibility, as well as the within- and between reader variability of high and routinely used spatial resolution in scans of patients with atherosclerotic carotid artery disease. Since no consensus exists about the optimal segmentation method, we analysed all imaging data using two different segmentation methods.

Materials and methods: In 31 patient with carotid atherosclerosis a high (0.25 × 0.25 mm2; HR) and routinely used (0.50 × 0.50 mm2; LR) spatial resolution carotid MRI scan were performed within one month. A fully blinded closed and a simultaneously open segmentation were used to quantify the lipid rich necrotic core (LRNC), calcified and loose matrix (LM) plaque area and the fibrous cap (FC) thickness.

Results: No significant differences were observed between scan-rescan reproducibility for HR versus LR measurements, nor did we find any significant difference between the within-reader and between-reader reproducibility. The same applies for differences between the open and closed reads. All intraclass correlation coefficients between scans and rescans for the LRNC, calcified and LM plaque area, as well as the FC thickness measurements with the open segmentation method were excellent (all above 0.75).

Conclusions: Increasing the spatial resolution at the expense of the contrast-to-noise ratio does not improve carotid plaque component scan-rescan reproducibility in patients with atherosclerotic carotid disease, nor does using a different segmentation method.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Representative sample of scan and rescan HR images containing a LRNC.
Panel A and B show the difference in intensity between a T1w (panel A, panel D) and a T2w (panel B, panel E) image for the LRNC of a scan and rescan respectively. Panel C (scan) and panel F (rescan) show the manual delineation of the LRNC with the closed segmentation method.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Representative sample of a HR and LR scan containing a calcified plaque area.
Panel A and B show a HR image at a different magnification, with a manual delineated calcium contour obtained with the closed segmentation method (panel C). Panel D and E show a LR image at a different magnification, with a manual delineated calcium contour obtained with the closed segmentation method (panel F).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Bland-Altman plots of the high resolution and low resolution carotid plaque composition measurements for all parameters and for the open and closed segmentation method.
The middle dashed line of each plot indicate the bias. The upper and lower dashed line indicate the 95% limits of agreement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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