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HR-MRI findings of intracranial artery stenosis and distribution of atherosclerotic plaques caused by different etiologies

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Abstract

Objective

To investigate the etiology of intracranial artery stenosis and the distribution characteristics of intracranial artery atherosclerotic stenosis using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI).

Methods

A total of 262 patients with intracranial artery stenosis that underwent HR-MRI from November 2019 to December 2020 were retrospectively enrolled. The etiology of intracranial anterior and posterior circulation artery stenosis was analyzed, and the relationship between the location of plaques and the distribution characteristics of plaques and the occurrence of ischemic stroke was summarized.

Results

A total of 276 plaques were identified with HR-MRI. There were 101 cases (36.59%) in the middle cerebral artery (MCA), 14 cases (5.07%) in the posterior cerebral artery (PCA), 90 cases (32.62%) in vertebral artery (VA), and 71 cases (25.72%) in the basilar artery (BA). The infarct rate of ventral and superior wall MCA plaques was higher than that of dorsal and inferior wall (63.33% vs 31.25% P = 0.021) (100.00% vs 50% P = 0.022). MCA with plaques throughout the course had the greatest degree of stenosis (P < 0.001). Sphenoid segment (M1) of MCA was most susceptible (85 cases, 84.16%), MCA plaques were most common in the proximal M1 segment (35 cases, 34.65%), and most BA plaques were found in the distal segment (28 cases, 39.44%). PCA plaques were most frequently involved in traffic anterior segment (P1) (7 cases, 50.00%).

Conclusion

HR-MRI could provide accurate imaging reference for clinical evaluation of intracranial arterial stenosis and formulation of treatment plans. The intracranial arterial plates mostly appeared in the middle cerebral artery and vertebral artery. Middle cerebral arteries with atherosclerotic plaques are more likely to narrow.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Imaging, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, No.215 West Heping Road, Shijiazhuang, 100050, Hebei, China

    Jie Sun, Xu-Ran Feng, Ping-Yong Feng, Yu-Bo Liu, Hai-Xiao Yang, Xuan Yang & Tian-Zi Zhang

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  1. Jie Sun
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Contributions

SJ and FXR have made substantial contributions to conception and design of the study. FPY and LYB were involved in acquisition of data, data entry, and data cleaning. YHX was involved in analysis and interpretation of data. SJ and FXR have been involved in drafting the manuscript. YX and ZTZ were involved in revising manuscript critically for important intellectual content. All authors contributed substantially to its revision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ping-Yong Feng.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all the study subjects before enrollment.

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Not applicable.

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Sun, J., Feng, XR., Feng, PY. et al. HR-MRI findings of intracranial artery stenosis and distribution of atherosclerotic plaques caused by different etiologies. Neurol Sci 43, 5421–5430 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-022-06132-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-022-06132-6

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