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High-Resolution Vessel Wall Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Angiogram-Negative Non-Perimesencephalic Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

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Abstract

Purpose

Standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) rarely identifies the cause of hemorrhage in patients with an angiogram-negative, non-perimesencephalic subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Yet up to 10 % of these patients have recurrent hemorrhage. The aim of the study was to explore the potential role of high-resolution contrast-enhanced 3-Tesla vessel wall-MRI in patients with angiogram-negative SAH.

Methods

We performed intracranial vessel wall-MRI of the circle of Willis using a 3-Tesla scanner in consecutive patients presenting with a spontaneous, angiogram-negative, non-perimesencephalic SAH. Vessel wall-MRI included T1-, T2-, and gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted two-dimensional black-blood sequences in multiple planes (voxel size 0.4 × 0.4 × 2.0 mm). Two neuroradiologists independently scored abnormalities of the arterial wall.

Results

In all, 11 patients (mean age 59 years) underwent vessel wall-MRI. A total of seven patients had vessel wall abnormalities despite normal catheter angiography. Two patients had focal abnormalities contiguous with the outer margin of the basilar artery wall for which we considered a differential of ruptured blood blister aneurysm, thrombosed aneurysm, and loculated extramural blood from elsewhere. Two patients had arterial wall enhancement involving multiple arteries, possibly secondary to SAH. Three patients had arterial wall enhancement at sites of dural penetration, remote from the SAH, likely related to age and atherosclerotic risk factors. Vessel wall-MRI did not alter patient management in this cohort.

Conclusion

Vessel wall-MRI showed abnormalities in seven patients with angiogram-negative SAH. These findings did not alter patient management, but the findings may be useful for other physicians who choose to perform vessel wall-MRI in this patient population.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neuroradiology, Department of Medical Imaging, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network and the University of Toronto, 399 Bathurst St, M5T 2S8, Toronto, ON, Canada

    J. M. Coutinho, R. H. Sacho, R. Agid, T. Krings, D. J. Mikulis & D. M. Mandell

  2. Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University Health Network and the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    J. D. Schaafsma

  3. Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University Health Network and the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    I. Radovanovic

  4. Departments of Diagnostic Radiology and Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    C. C. Matouk

Authors
  1. J. M. Coutinho
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  2. R. H. Sacho
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  3. J. D. Schaafsma
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  4. R. Agid
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  5. T. Krings
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  6. I. Radovanovic
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  7. C. C. Matouk
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  8. D. J. Mikulis
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  9. D. M. Mandell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. M. Mandell.

Additional information

This work was presented in poster form at the 1st European Stroke Organization Congress in Glasgow, United Kingdom, 2015.

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Coutinho, J.M., Sacho, R.H., Schaafsma, J.D. et al. High-Resolution Vessel Wall Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Angiogram-Negative Non-Perimesencephalic Subarachnoid Hemorrhage. Clin Neuroradiol 27, 175–183 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00062-015-0484-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00062-015-0484-x

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