Carotid artery perivascular adipose tissue on magnetic resonance imaging: a potential indicator for carotid vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque

• Published in: Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery 2023-12, Vol.13 (12), p.7695-7705
• Main Authors: Yu, Shuwan, Huo, Ran, Qiao, Huiyu, Ning, Zihan, Xu, Huimin, Yang, Dandan, Shen, Rui, Xu, Ning, Han, Hualu, Chen, Shuo, Liu, Ying, Zhao, Xihai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2223-4292; 2223-4306
• DOI: 10.21037/qims-23-280

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the potential in assessing the inflammation of perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) due to its excellent soft tissue contrast. However, evidence is lacking for the association between carotid PVAT measured by MRI and carotid vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques. This study aimed to investigate the association between signal intensity of PVAT and vulnerable plaques in carotid arteries using multi-contrast magnetic resonance (MR) vessel wall imaging. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 104 patients (mean age, 64.9±7.0 years; 86 men) with unilateral moderate-to-severe atherosclerotic stenosis referred to carotid endarterectomy (CEA) were recruited from April 2018 to December 2020 at Department of Neurosurgery of Peking University Third Hospital. All patients underwent multi-contrast MR vessel wall imaging including time-of-flight (ToF) MR angiography, black-blood T1-weighted (T1w) and T2-weighted (T2w) and simultaneous non-contrast angiography and intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) imaging sequences. Patients with contraindications to endarterectomy or MRI examinations were excluded. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of PVAT were measured on ToF images and vulnerable plaque characteristics including IPH, large lipid-rich necrotic core (LRNC), and fibrous cap rupture (FCR) were identified. The SNR and CNR of PVAT were compared between slices with and without vulnerable plaque features using Mann-Whitney test and their associations were analyzed using the generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). Carotid artery slices with IPH (30.93±14.56 27.34±10.02; P0.05). The SNR of carotid artery PVAT measured by ToF MR angiography is independently associated with vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque features, suggesting that the signal intensity of PVAT might be an effective indicator for vulnerable plaque.