Usefulness of MR Angiography in Patients with Ischemic Stroke

ABSTRACT

Using the 3-D TOF technique of MR angiography, the main intracranial and extracranial vessels of 46 normal controls and 37 patients with ischemic stroke were evaluated. In controls 1 the visibility of internal carotid artery and vertebrobasilar artery was ninety-one percent, and that of the first division of the middle cerebral artery was ninety-four percent. In patient groups, compared with the contrast angiographic findings, the sensitivity of MR angiography in detecting vascular occlusive lesions was 100.0% in anterior circulations, and 80.0% in posterior circulations. But several false positive cases were detected. Which were mainly associated with tortous tuming points of the vessels, and MIP artifacts. In spite of the high sensitivity of MR angiography in detecting vascular abnormalities, the degree of occlusive vascular lesions were more accentuated in MR angiography probably due to MIP artifact. The overestimated rate of vascular stenosis was about 24.6 percent compared with the contrast angiography.