Quantifying Intracranial Plaque Permeability with Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Elevated <i>K</i>^trans and V_p values found in intracranial atherosclerotic disease plaques versus healthy white matter suggest that dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging is a feasible technique for studying vessel wall and plaque characteristics in the proximal intracranial vasculature. Significant correlations between <i>K</i>^trans and symptom onset, which were not observed on T1 SPACE-derived metrics, suggest that <i>K</i>^trans may be an independent imaging biomarker of acute and symptom-associated pathologic changes in intracranial atherosclerotic disease plaques.