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Abstract #2530

Vessel Wall Changes In Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Compared To Controls: A Preliminary MR Imaging Study In Carotid Artery

Wei Zhang 1 , Jie Sun 2 , Bin Zhou 1 , Jianrong Xu 1 , Daniel S Hippe 2 , Huijun Chen 3 , Thomas S Hatsukami 2 , and Chun Yuan 2

1 Department of Radiology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, Shanghai, China, 2 Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, 3 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have markedly increased risk of carotid atherosclerosis. In this preliminary study, we tried to use MR imaging and post-processing software to examine any early abnormalities in fine structures of carotid vessel wall, including the wall thickening, different enhancement and signal intensity changes in patients with SLE by comparing them to age- and sex-matched controls. MR had a great success in analysis plaque components, while we want to show that MR also can be a useful way in predicting and measuring the early subclinical atherosclerosis lesion in SLE patients before their plaque formation.

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