Abstract
Our aim was to investigate wall thickening (WT) pattern of atherosclerotic basilar artery stenosis with three-dimensional volumetric isotropic turbo spin echo acquisition (3D VISTA), and the relationship with clinical characteristics. Twenty consecutive patients with atherosclerotic basilar artery stenosis were prospectively enrolled. All cross-sectional slices on VISTA images of basilar arteries were assessed, and classified as eccentric or concentric WT. Clinical characteristics and degree of stenosis were compared between the patients with different wall WT pattern. Wall abnormalities were identified in 568 cross-sectional slices in basilar arteries of 20 patients including eccentric WT in 497 (87.5 %) slices, and concentric WT in 71 (12.5 %) slices. In 11 of 20 patients, all the cross-sectional slices (293 slices) showed eccentric WT. In 9 of 20 patients, the cross-sectional slices (275 slices) showed both eccentric WT (204 slices, 74.2 %) and concentric WT (71 slices, 25.8 %). No lesion showed only concentric WT. At the slices of maximum luminal narrowing sites, only one patient showed concentric WT. Symptomatic stenosis was more common in the patients with mixed WT (eccentric and concentric), compared to patients with only eccentric WT (100 vs 54.5 %, p = 0.038). Atherosclerotic basilar artery stenosis could show both eccentric and concentric WT based on each slice analysis. Concentric WT was found in near half of the patients, but tended to locate in minimal slices. No lesion was entirely concentric. Lesions with mixed WT (concentric and eccentric) might represent advanced atherosclerosis with high risk of ischemic event.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Johnston SC, Mendis S, Mathers CD (2009) Global variation in stroke burden and mortality: estimates from monitoring, surveillance, and modelling. Lancet Neurol 8:345–354
Feigin VL, Forouzanfar MH, Krishnamurthi R, Mensah GA, Connor M, Bennett DA et al (2014) Global and regional burden of stroke during 1990–2010: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 383:245–254
Wang Y, Zhao X, Liu L, Soo YOY, Pu Y, Pan Y et al (2014) Prevalence and outcomes of symptomatic intracranial large artery stenoses and occlusions in China: the Chinese Intracranial Atherosclerosis (CICAS) Study. Stroke 45:663–669
Saam T, Hatsukami TS, Takaya N, Chu B, Underhill H, Kerwin WS et al (2007) The vulnerable, or high-risk, atherosclerotic plaque: noninvasive mr imaging for characterization and assessment. Radiology 244:64–77
Niizuma K, Shimizu H, Takada S, Tominaga T (2008) Middle cerebral artery plaque imaging using 3-Tesla high-resolution MRI. J Clin Neurosci 15:1137–1141
Zhu XJ, Du B, Lou X, Hui FK, Ma L, Zheng BW et al (2013) Morphologic characteristics of atherosclerotic middle cerebral arteries on 3T high-resolution MRI. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 34:1717–1722
Ma N, Jiang WJ, Lou X, Ma L, Du B, Cai JF et al (2010) Arterial remodeling of advanced basilar atherosclerosis: a 3-tesla MRI study. Neurology 75:253–258
Zhu XJ, Jiang WJ, Liu L, Hu LB, Wang W, Liu ZJ (2015) Plaques of nonstenotic basilar arteries with isolated pontine infarction on three-dimensional high isotropic resolution magnetic resonance imaging. Chin Med J 128:1433–1437
Antiga L, Wasserman BA, Steinman DA (2008) On the overestimation of early wall thickening at the carotid bulb by black blood MRI, with implications for coronary and vulnerable plaque imaging. Magn Reson Med 60:1020–1028
Qiao Y, Steinman DA, Qin Q, Etesami M, Schär M, Astor BC et al (2011) Intracranial arterial wall imaging using three-dimensional high isotropic resolution black blood MRI at 3.0 Tesla. J Magn Reson Imaging 34:22–30
Zhu XJ, Wang W, Du B, Liu L, He XX, Hu LB et al (2015) Wall imaging for unilateral intracranial vertebral artery hypoplasia with three-dimensional high-isotropic resolution magnetic resonance images. Chin Med J 128:1601–1606
von Birgelen C, Klinkhart W, Mintz GS, Papatheodorou A, Herrmann J, Baumgart D et al (2001) Plaque distribution and vascular remodeling of ruptured and nonruptured coronary plaques in the same vessel: an intravascular ultrasound study in vivo. J Am Coll Cardiol 37:1864–1870
Mintz GS, Popma JJ, Pichard AD, Kent KM, Satler LF, Chuang YC et al (1996) Limitations of angiography in the assessment of plaque distribution in coronary artery disease: a systematic study of target lesion eccentricity in 1446 lesions. Circulation 93:924–931
Nair P, Gruberg L, Beyar R (2006) The eccentric lumenology. Acute Card Care 8:87–94
Swartz RH, Bhuta SS, Farb RI, Agid R, Willinsky RA, Terbrugge KG et al (2009) Intracranial arterial wall imaging using high-resolution 3-tesla contrast-enhanced MRI. Neurology 72:627–634
Dieleman N, van der Kolk AG, van Veluw SJ, Frijns CJM, Harteveld AA, Luijten PR et al (2014) Patterns of intracranial vessel wall changes in relation to ischemic infarcts. Neurology 83:1316–1320
Underhill HR, Yarnykh VL, Hatsukami TS, Wang J, Balu N, Hayes CE et al (2008) Carotid plaque morphology and composition: initial comparison between 1.5- and 3.0-T magnetic field strengths. Radiology 248:550–560
Samuels OB, Joseph GJ, Lynn MJ, Smith HA, Chimowitz MI (2000) A standardized method for measuring intracranial arterial stenosis. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 21:643–646
Mandell DM, Matouk CC, Farb RI, Krings T, Agid R, terBrugge K et al (2012) Vessel wall MRI to differentiate between reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome and central nervous system vasculitis: preliminary results. Stroke 43:860–862
Klein IF, Lavallee PC, Mazighi M et al (2010) Basilar artery atherosclerotic plaques in paramedian and lacunar pontine infarctions: a high-resolution MRI study. Stroke 417:1405–1409
Honye J, Mahon DJ, Jain A, White CJ, Ramee SR, Wallis JB et al (1992) Morphological effects of coronary balloon angioplasty in vivo assessed by intravascular ultrasound imaging. Circulation 85:1012–1025
Waller BF, Orr CM, Pinkerton CA, Van Tassel J, Peters T, Slack JD (1992) Coronary balloon angioplasty dissections: “the good, the bad, and the ugly”. J Am Coll Cardiol 20:701–706
Fiorellar D, Derdeyn CP, Lynn MJ, Barnwell SL, Hoh BL, Levy EI et al (2012) Detailed analysis of periprocedural strokes in patients undergoing intracranial stenting in Stenting and Aggressive Medical Management for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS). Stroke 43:2682–2688
Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by grants from the National Basic Research Program (program 973) of China (2013CB733805); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2014M562633); China–Japan Friendship Hospital Youth Science and Technology Excellence Project (2014-QNYC-A-04); National Natural Science Foundation of China (81173595, 81070925, 81471767).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
There is no conflict of interest statement.
Role of the funding source
The study sponsor had no influence on the study and no role in the writing of this paper and in the decision to submit it for publication.
Additional information
X. Zhu and L. Liu contributed equally to this work.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhu, X., Liu, L., He, X. et al. Wall thickening pattern in atherosclerotic basilar artery stenosis. Neurol Sci 37, 269–276 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-015-2404-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-015-2404-x