High-resolution intracranial vessel wall imaging using 3D CUBE T1 weighted sequence

The Use and Pitfalls of Intracranial Vessel Wall Imaging: How We Do It

“…† Plaque characterization has mainly been performed in the Asian population, in which large multicomponent atherosclerotic plaques are significantly more prevalent. Several case series have shown the possibility of detecting intraplaque hemorrhage (22,(89)(90)(91)(92)(93); however, postmortem studies suggest that intraplaque hemorrhage has a lower prevalence in intracranial plaques compared with extracranial (carotid) plaques (6,47,94); therefore, its role so far remains elusive.…”

Toward longitudinal studies of hemodynamically induced vessel wall remodeling

“…In recent studies, CUBE T1 was mostly dedicated to cerebrovascular imaging applications and was often performed after the administration of contrast media. [27][28][29] We, for the first time, optimized CUBE T1 for contrast-free imaging of the AVF for HD. While image quality is mandatory to allow reliable and accurate vessel segmentation and 3D model generation, the duration of the acquisition is also important when scanning elderly end-stage renal disease patients, who find remaining still even for a short period very difficult.…”

Comparison of 3T Intracranial Vessel Wall MRI Sequences

“…For a high CNR of the vessel wall, both blood and CSF need to be simultaneously suppressed1. 3D variable flip-angle refocusing pulse-sequences are used because of their high intrinsic black-blood properties and the ability to generate multi-planar reformatted images, but have less effect on the slowly flowing CSF17,19–22,27. For a better CSF suppression Proton Density-weighted imaging with radial ordering modulation of the k-space (short echo-time)19, Anti-Driven Equilibrium (ADE)18,23,28, or prepulses such as Delay Alternating with Nutation for Tailored Excitation (DANTE)17,21,29 and inversion-recovery30 have been proposed.…”

“…However, with high spatial resolutions the SNR is still limited and the total scan duration is long. Recently published intracranial vessel wall MR-sequences have scan durations ranging from 5.0–10.2 minutes16–22. To assess vessel wall lesions, pre- and postcontrast acquisitions are needed to evaluate contrast-enhancement of the vessel walls.…”