Mahmud Mossa-Basha
Extracranial carotid vulnerable plaque imaging is a maturing field in both the clinical and research realms, providing information that goes beyond standard luminal imaging techniques. The North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial and the European Carotid Surgery Trial have formed the basis of reliance on carotid luminal stenosis measurements to determine the risk for … more »
Victor X.D. Yang
The current standard of care for the assessment of carotid plaques has been the use of ultrasonography, MR imaging, and CT to identify key features of atherosclerosis. Fundamental markers such as intimal morphology, presence of macrophages, and lipid content in the plaque are attributed to the classification of the lesion, as well as assessment of … more »
Chun Yuan
My initial interest in carotid plaque MR imaging began while working as an Assistant Professor. The work of Drs. Eugene Strandness, Russell Ross, and James Nelson was instrumental in introducing me to the field of atherosclerosis imaging, and Dr. Thomas Hatsukami and I began to investigate MRI’s unique ability to assess and differentiate … more »
Hunter R. Underhill
Carotid atherosclerotic disease is a principal cause of stroke. Advances in MRI have afforded the opportunity to study the in vivo evolution of plaque progression, monitor response to therapy during clinical trials, and identify features associated with future ischemic events such as fibrous cap rupture (FCR) and intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH). While … more »
Bruce Wasserman
High-resolution contrast-enhanced MRI has been shown to reliably and accurately depict features of atherosclerotic plaque that are considered risk markers for stroke. In fact, we now recognize that these features seem to be as important as angiographic measures of stenosis for determining stroke risk.1 Intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) is one such feature and the target … more »
J. Kevin DeMarco
Carotid plaque MRI has the ability to noninvasively detect “vulnerable plaque” features such as intraplaque hemorrhage, thin/ruptured fibrous cap, and large lipid-rich necrotic core, which may offer improved prediction of ispilateral carotid stroke or TIA compared with simple carotid stenosis measurements. Our work at Michigan State University has confirmed the ability … more »
Max Wintermark
Carotid atherosclerotic disease is considered to be responsible for 30% of all ischemic stroke. Luminal narrowing is the standard parameter used to report the severity of carotid atherosclerosis, and a luminal stenosis of ≥70% is typically considered a hallmark of increased stroke risk. However, even if they have a higher individual risk of … more »