Print Email Facebook Twitter Atherosclerotic plaque fibrous cap assessment under an oblique scan plane orientation in carotid MRI Title Atherosclerotic plaque fibrous cap assessment under an oblique scan plane orientation in carotid MRI Author Nieuwstadt, H.A. Van der Lugt, A. Kassar, Z.A.M. Breeuwer, M. Van der Steen, A.F.W. Gijsen, F.J.H. Faculty Applied Sciences Department ImPhys/Imaging Physics Date 2014-08-01 Abstract Carotid magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used to noninvasively assess atherosclerotic plaque fibrous cap (FC) status, which is closely related to ischemic stroke. Acquiring anisotropic voxels improves in-plane visualization, however, an oblique scan plane orientation could then obscure a FC (i.e., contrast below the noise level) and thus impair a reliable status assessment. To quantify this, we performed single-slice numerical simulations of a clinical 3.0T, 2D T1-weighted, black-blood, contrast-enhanced pulse sequence with various voxel dimensions: in-plane voxel size of 0.62 mm × 0.62 mm and 0.31 mm × 0.31 mm, slice thickness of 1, 2, and 3 mm. Idealized plaque models (FC thickness of 0.5, 1, and 1.5 mm) were imaged at various scan plane angles (0°-40° in steps of 10°), and the FC contrast was quantified. We found that when imaging thin FCs with anisotropic voxels, the FC contrast decreased when the scan plane orientation angle increased. However, a reduced in-plane voxel size at the cost of an increased slice thickness often led to enhanced FC contrast even in the presence of scan plane orientation angles of up to 40°. It can be concluded that while isotropic-voxel imaging eliminates the issue of scan plane obliqueness, it comes at the cost of reduced FC contrast, thus likely decreasing the reliability of FC status assessment in carotid MRI. If scan plane orientation obliquity at the slice of interest is moderate (<40°) or otherwise diminished through careful scan planning, voxel anisotropy could increase FC contrast and, in effect, increase the reliability of FC status assessment. Subject Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)strokeatherosclerosissimulationsfibrous cap (FC) To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b970bae6-b60f-4f34-8aaa-7140a1ee4838 DOI https://doi.org/10.3978/j.issn.2223-4292.2014.07.05 Publisher AME Publishing Company ISSN 2223-4292 Source Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery, 4 (4), 2014 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2014 AME Publishing Company Files PDF vanderSteen_2014.pdf 1.11 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:b970bae6-b60f-4f34-8aaa-7140a1ee4838/datastream/OBJ/view