Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of atherosclerotic disease

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) images of 93 patients undergoing studies of the abdomen and pelvis were studied for evidence of lesions of the aorta and the iliac and femoral arteries; atherosclerotic lesions were present in 13 of them. The lesions consisted of eccentric and concentric mural thickening with luminal narrowing and discrete plaques protruding into the vessel lumen. This appearance was distinctly different from the morphology of the internal vessel surface and uniformly thin vessel wall in normal patients and volunteers under the age of 30 years. Intraluminal flow signals observed in atherosclerotic and nonatherosclerotic subjects could be distinguished from mural lesions because of their lack of contiguity with the vessel wall and variation in appearance on multiple images obtained with the first and second spin echo. This initial experience suggests a potential role for NMR in the noninvasive imaging of atherosclerotic lesions. The natural contrast between flowing blood and the vessel wall indicates a distinct advantage of NMR for vascular imaging.