Quantitative evaluation for intravascular structures of vertebral artery dissection with a novel zoomed high-resolution black-blood MR imaging.

BACKGROUND: Although non-stroke vertebral artery dissection (VAD) is diagnosed using MRI, detecting the subtle intravascular structure remains challenging. This study aimed to evaluate the validity of quantitative intravascular scanning based on novel zoomed high-resolution black blood (Z-HB) MRI for distinguishing VAD from other vessel pathologies.

METHODS: Twenty-one patients with non-stroke VAD and 18 with symptomatic atherosclerotic plaques in their vertebral artery underwent Z-HB MRI and subsequent profile curve processing. Axial Z-HB imaging was obtained from dissected and normal segments in patients with VAD and atherosclerotic plaque in patients with ischemia. We investigated the qualitative categorization of the scanning patterns of the intravascular signals. We also evaluated the quantitative ability of each profile curve to discriminate multiple vessel pathologies by analyzing the receiver operating characteristics curves.

RESULTS: Profile curve processing of 140 Z-HB images categorized the intravascular signal patterns into luminal, asymmetrical, and omega types. The asymmetrical type included both dissecting and atherosclerotic vessels, and the omega type included dissecting and normal vessels. In the asymmetrical type, quantitative evaluation successfully distinguished intramural hematomas of VAD from atherosclerotic plaque with an area under the curve of 0.80. The intimal flap of the VAD was distinguished from the blood flow artifact of the normal vessel with an area under the curve of 0.93 in the omega type.

CONCLUSIONS: A combination of novel Z-HB MRI and profile curve processing provided an ultra-high-resolution analysis of the intravascular structure of non-stroke VAD and successfully distinguished VAD from normal vessels or atherosclerotic plaques.