David C. Zhu1, Hideki Ota, Anthony T. Vu2, J. Kevin DeMarco
1Psychology and Radiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA; 2GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI, USA
Intraplaque hemorrhage into the carotid atherosclerotic plaque has been shown to create instability and progression. We have developed an optimized 3D inversion recovery prepared fast spoiled gradient recalled sequence with multiple echoes, and is now characteristically called an optimized 3D Spoiled Gradient for Hemorrhage Assessment Using INversion Recovery and Multiple Echoes (3D SHINE) for carotid plaque imaging. The sequence has been further optimized in scan time, coverage and black-blood effect. Pilot patient data are presented. The T2* values appear to be promising in characterizing the hemorrhage type. This hemorrhage type characterization may provide additional information on plaque vulnerability.