Intracranial arterial wall imaging: Techniques, clinical applicability, and future perspectives.

Purpose: To review the current state of the art and future development of intracranial vessel wall imaging.

Methods: Recent literature review and expert opinion about intracranial arterial wall imaging.

Results: Intracranial large artery diseases represent an important cause of stroke and vascular cognitive impairment worldwide.

Short-term mechanisms influencing volumetric brain dynamics.

With the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and brain analysis tools, it has become possible to measure brain volume changes up to around 0.5%. Besides long-term brain changes caused by atrophy in aging or neurodegenerative disease, short-term mechanisms that influence brain volume may exist.

Detecting Intracranial Vessel Wall Lesions With 7T-Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Patients With Posterior Circulation Ischemia Versus Healthy Controls.

Background And Purpose: Vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging sequences have been developed to directly visualize the intracranial vessel wall, enabling detection of vessel wall changes, including those that have not yet caused luminal narrowing. In this study, vessel wall lesion burden was assessed in patients with recent posterior circulation ischemia using 7T-magnetic resonance imaging and compared with matched healthy controls.

Methods: Fifty subjects (25 patients and 25 matched healthy controls) underwent 7T-magnetic resonance imaging with an intracranial vessel wall sequence before and after contrast administration.

Qualitative Evaluation of a High-Resolution 3D Multi-Sequence Intracranial Vessel Wall Protocol at 3 Tesla MRI.

Background And Purpose: Intracranial vessel wall imaging using MRI has great potential as a clinical method for assessing intracranial atherosclerosis. The purpose of the current study was to compare three 3T MRI vessel wall sequences with different contrast weightings (T1w, PD, T2w) and dedicated sagittal orientation perpendicular to the middle cerebral artery, to the reconstructed sagittal image from a transverse 3D T1w volumetric isotropically reconstructed turbo spin-echo acquisition (VIRTA), and provide a clinical recommendation.

Materials And Methods: The above-mentioned sequences were acquired in 10 consecutive Chinese ischemic stroke or TIA patients (age: 68 years, sex: 4 females) with angiographic-confirmed MCA stenosis at 3T.

High-resolution intracranial vessel wall MRI in an elderly asymptomatic population: comparison of 3T and 7T.

Objectives: Several intracranial vessel wall sequences have been described in recent literature, with either 3-T or 7-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the current study, we compared 3-T and 7-T MRI in visualising both the intracranial arterial vessel wall and vessel wall lesions.

Methods: Twenty-one elderly asymptomatic volunteers were scanned by 3-T and 7-T MRI with an intracranial vessel wall sequence, both before and after contrast administration.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Plaque Morphology, Burden, and Distribution in Patients With Symptomatic Middle Cerebral Artery Stenosis.

Background And Purpose: Intracranial atherosclerosis is a major cause of ischemic stroke worldwide. Intracranial vessel wall imaging is an upcoming field of interest to assess intracranial atherosclerosis. In this study, we investigated total intracranial plaque burden in patients with symptomatic middle cerebral artery stenosis, assessed plaque morphological features, and compared features of symptomatic and asymptomatic lesions using a 3T vessel wall sequence.

Relations between location and type of intracranial atherosclerosis and parenchymal damage.

The aim of this study was to assess the relation between location and type of intracranial atherosclerosis (ICAS) and cortical microinfarcts (CMIs) and macroinfarcts in 18 patients presenting with ischemic stroke (n = 12) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) (n = 6) using 7 tesla MR imaging. The protocol included: 3D T2-weighted FLAIR and 3D T1-weighted Magnetization-Preparation Inversion Recovery Turbo Spin Echo sequence. ICAS lesions and infarcts were scored by two raters.

Relation between subcortical grey matter atrophy and conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: To investigate whether subcortical grey matter atrophy predicts progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to compare subcortical volumes between AD, MCI and controls. To assess the correlation between subcortical grey matter volumes and severity of cognitive impairment.

Methods: We included 773 participants with three-dimensional T1-weighted MRI at 3 T, made up of 181 controls, who had subjective memory symptoms with normal cognition, 201 MCIs and 391 AD.

High-resolution postcontrast time-of-flight MR angiography of intracranial perforators at 7.0 Tesla.

Background And Purpose: Different studies already demonstrated the benefits of 7T for precontrast TOF-MRA in the visualization of intracranial small vessels. The aim of this study was to assess the performance of high-resolution 7T TOF-MRA after the administration of a gadolinium-based contrast agent in visualizing intracranial perforating arteries.

Materials And Methods: Ten consecutive patients (7 male; mean age, 50.

More atrophy of deep gray matter structures in frontotemporal dementia compared to Alzheimer's disease.

Background: The involvement of frontostriatal circuits in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) suggests that deep gray matter structures (DGM) may be affected in this disease.

Objective: We investigated whether volumes of DGM structures differed between patients with behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and subjective complaints (SC) and explored relationships between DGM structures, cognition, and neuropsychiatric functioning.

Methods: For this cross-sectional study, we included 24 patients with FTD and matched them based on age, gender, and education at a ratio of 1:3 to 72 AD patients and 72 patients with SC who served as controls.

Patterns of intracranial vessel wall changes in relation to ischemic infarcts.

Objective: In this retrospective case series study, we used 7.0 tesla MRI to describe patterns of intracranial vessel wall abnormalities in relation to ischemic infarcts in 9 patients with different intracranial vessel wall pathologies.

Methods: A patient-specific clinical imaging protocol was obtained after regular clinical workup, including a fluid-attenuated inversion recovery and an intracranial vessel wall sequence before and after contrast administration using 7.

Hyaluronan accumulation and arrested oligodendrocyte progenitor maturation in vanishing white matter disease.

Vanishing white matter disease is a genetic leukoencephalopathy caused by mutations in eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2B. Patients experience a slowly progressive neurological deterioration with episodes of rapid clinical worsening triggered by stress. The disease may occur at any age and leads to early death.