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Updated: Feb 7, 2026
Rapid Acquisition of 3D Images Using High-resolution Episcopic Microscopy
Published on: November 21, 2016
Identification of carotid lipid-rich necrotic core and calcification by 3D magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition
Huiyu Qiao1, Feiyu Li2, Dongxiang Xu3
1Center for Biomedical Imaging Research, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Beijing, China.
Background And Purpose:
This study sought to investigate the feasibility of three-dimensional MPRAGE in identifying the lipid-rich necrotic core (LRNC) and calcification (CA) of carotid atherosclerotic plaques.
Materials And Methods:
Twelve patients (mean age 68.4 ± 11.8 years; 7 males) with carotid atherosclerotic plaques on ultrasound were included and underwent multicontrast magnetic resonance (MR) vessel wall imaging. The contrast enhanced T1W (CE-T1W) images were considered as reference for identifying LRNC. The signal intensity of LRNC, CA, sterno-cleidomastoid muscle and fibrous tissue (FT) was measured on CE-T1W, T1W, T2W, and MPRAGE images, respectively. The relative signal intensity (rSI) of LRNC and CA against muscle or FT was compared among four sequences. Area under the curve (AUC) of rSIs of LRNC, CA and FT against muscle on MPRAGE, T1W and T2W images in discriminating the LRNC or CA from FT and the other plaque component was calculated.
Results:
Of 352 slices, 88 (25.0%) had LRNC, 31 (8.8%) had CA, 14 (4.0%) had both LRNC and CA, and 247 (70.2%) had no components. Among four imaging sequences, MPRAGE images showed the lowest rSI of LRNC (0.34 ± 0.18) and CA (0.20 ± 0.16) against muscle, followed by T1W (0.48 ± 0.18 and 0.33 ± 0.21), CE-T1W (0.58 ± 0.23 and 0.40 ± 0.21) and T2W (0.71 ± 0.47 and 0.43 ± 0.40) images. In addition, the MPRAGE images showed the lowest rSI of LRNC (0.57 ± 0.26) and CA (0.33 ± 0.23) against FT. MPRAGE showed greater AUC than T2W and T1W in discriminating the LRNC (0.827 vs. 0.703 vs. 0.635) and CA (0.917 vs. 0.838 vs. 0.825).
Conclusion:
MPRAGE sequence might be a potential non-contrast enhanced imaging tool for identification of carotid LRNC and CA.
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