Does aneurysmal wall enhancement on vessel wall MRI help to distinguish stable from unstable intracranial aneurysms?

Background And Purpose: Arterial wall enhancement on vessel wall MRI was described in intracranial inflammatory arterial disease. We hypothesized that circumferential aneurysmal wall enhancement (CAWE) could be an indirect marker of aneurysmal wall inflammation and, therefore, would be more frequent in unstable (ruptured, symptomatic, or undergoing morphological modification) than in stable (incidental and nonevolving) intracranial aneurysms.

Methods: We prospectively performed vessel wall MRI in patients with stable or unstable intracranial aneurysms.