ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the accuracy of measurements of atherosclerotic middle cerebral artery (MCA) stenosis with 3.0 T high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI).Methods Forty patients with symptomatic atherosclerotic stenosis of middle cerebral artery (MCA) confirmed by digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in the Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College from September 2017 to May 2018 were enrolled in the study.Patients were scanned by HR-MRI sequence (including T1WI,T2WI,PDWI).The MCA M1 stenosis rate on HR-MR images was assessed by warfarin-aspirin symptomatic intracranial artery disease (WASID) method and area measurement algorithm,respectively,and based on the stenosis rate the degree of stenosis (semi-quantitative measurement) was determined.The accuracy of the two measurement methods was evaluated with DSA results as the gold standard.Results The HR-MRI images showed the structure of the vessel wall clearly in 30 patients meeting the measurement requirements.The inner edge of the vessel was clearly distinguishable and smooth,showing eccentric stenosis.The stenosis rate of MCA measured by DSA,WASID method and area measurement algorithm were (82± 17)％,(70± 12)％,(81 ± 16)％,respectively (P＞0.05).The result of area measurement algorithm was better correlated with DSA (r=0.893);and the coincidence of the stenosis degree rate of two measurement method was 90％(27/30).Conclusion The area measurement algorithm based on the HS-MRI has high accuracy in measuring the degree of MCA stenosis,which is of high clinical application value.