Abstract #3311

Quantitative T1, T2 & T2* Mapping of Carotid Artery Normal Wall & Atherosclerotic Plaque

Georgeta Mihai¹, Shivraman Giri², Travis P Sharkey-Toppen², Subha V Raman³, Sanjay Rajagopalan³, Orlando P Simonetti³

¹Cardiovascular Medicine , the Ohio State University , Columbus , OH, United States; ²Biomedical Engineering, the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States; ³Cardiovascular Medicine, the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States

Identification of atherosclerosis plaque composition with MRI is based on the tissues specific biophysical MR properties (T1, T2, T2*,etc.). These intrinsic properties can be identified and displayed as MR quantitative relaxation time maps that have the fundamental information needed to characterize plaque morphology. This study shows that quantitative mapping of MRI relaxation times in carotid arteries of normal and diseased subjects is feasible, suggesting they have the potential to generate an objective, unbiased, quantitative approach to define atherosclerosis disease severity.