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Updated: Aug 19, 2025
Longitudinal In Vivo Imaging of the Cerebrovasculature: Relevance to CNS Diseases
Published on: December 6, 2016
Predictors of improvement for patients with CNS vasculitis stenoses: A high-resolution vessel wall MRI follow-up
Huibin Kang1, Xiaoyan Bai2, Yisen Zhang3
1Department of Neurosurgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
Insights
Less vessel wall enhancement predicts improvement in intracranial vasculitis stenosis. This finding aids in predicting treatment response for patients with this condition.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Radiology
- Vascular Medicine
Background:
- Intracranial vasculitis causes stenosis, leading to potential neurological deficits.
- Predicting treatment response in these patients is crucial for effective management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify predictors of stenosis improvement in isolated intracranial vasculitis.
- To utilize high-resolution vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging (HR VW-MRI) for this investigation.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective review of 41 patients with intracranial vasculitis treated conventionally.
- Patients categorized into improvement and non-improvement groups based on stenosis changes via MR angiography.
- Multivariate analysis to determine predictive factors for stenosis improvement.
Main Results:
- The improvement group showed significantly reduced vessel wall enhancement on follow-up imaging (P = 0.004).
- Lower baseline vessel wall enhancement was an independent predictor of stenosis improvement (OR, 0.219; P = 0.033).
Conclusions:
- Reduced vessel wall enhancement at baseline is associated with greater stenosis reduction in intracranial vasculitis.
- This highlights the prognostic value of HR VW-MRI findings in guiding treatment strategies.
Purpose:
To investigate the predictors of the improvement for patients with isolated intracranial vasculitis stenoses using high-resolution vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging (HR VW-MRI).
Methods:
We retrospectively reviewed data from consecutive patients with confirmed intracranial vasculitis under the same conventional conservative treatment based on a prospectively established HR VW-MRI database between December 2016 and December 2020. According to the changes between the degree of stenosis at baseline compared to follow-up MR angiography, the patients were divided into an improvement group and a non-improvement group. A multivariate analysis was performed to identify the predictive factors associated with the improvement of stenoses secondary to intracranial vasculitis.
Results:
Overall, 41 patients (mean age 32.0 ± 10.1 years, 16 females) with isolated intracranial vasculitis stenoses were included (41.5 % [17/41] in the improvement group, and 58.5 % [24/41] were in the non-improvement group). The degree of wall enhancement on follow-up imaging was significantly reduced compared with that on the baseline imaging in the improvement group (P = 0.004). The multivariate analysis showed that the degree of enhancement (OR, 0.219, 95 % CI, 0.054 to 0.881; P = 0.033) at baseline was an independent predictive factor associated with the improvement in the intracranial vasculitis stenoses.
Conclusions:
In patients with isolated intracranial vasculitis stenoses, the less enhancement the vessel wall was, the more likely the degree of stenosis would be reduced by conventional conservative therapy.
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