Huijun Chen1, Li Dong1, William S. Kerwin1, Wei Yu2, Hideki Ota1, Hunter Underhill1, Xihai Zhao1, Zhaoqi Zhang2, Zach Miller1, Thomas S. Hatsukami3, Chun Yuan1
1Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; 2Department of Radiology, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Beijing, China; 3Department of Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Multi-contrast weighted MRI identified plaque features in carotid artery, such as intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) and thin or ruptured fibrous cap, have been reported to be predictors of subsequent stroke. On the other hand, plaque eccentricity of carotid artery has been found to be associated with ipsilateral cerebrovascular events in an ultrasonography study. In this study, we sought to assess the association between plaque shape and high risk plaque features in carotid artery, and a novel eccentricity index (EI) of plaque using MR imaging was established. The result shows that the plaques with high risk features (presence of IPH and thin or ruptured fibrous cap) have relatively high EI, which suggests the proposed EI from carotid MRI could be a potential predictor of high risk plaque.