In vivo middle cerebral artery plaque imaging by high-resolution MRI.

Middle cerebral artery (MCA) atherosclerosis is currently diagnosed by indirect angiographic methods. The authors used high-resolution MRI (HR-MRI) to study MCA stenosis in six patients. At the level of stenosis, an MCA plaque was clearly delineated and significantly measured vs nonatherosclerotic MCA segments, showing that HR-MRI is an accurate direct imaging method.