This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
MRI technique may identify early indicator of atherosclerosis
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Initial results using an MRI multi-frame imaging technique have shown promise in assessing vessel wall thickness in healthy people and those with risk factors for CAD, according to research from the NIH recently published in Radiology.
The technique, coronary vessel wall 3-T MR imaging with time-resolved acquisition of phase-sensitive dual-inversion recovery (TRAPD), was tested on 38 patients (12 with no risk factors for CAD and 26 with at least one risk factor for CAD). Researchers measured coronary artery wall thickness in each patient using both a single-frame MRI scan and the TRAPD technique, by which five continuous images are captured.
The success rate for obtaining an image of good to excellent quality was 95% with the TRAPD technique vs. a 76% success rate with the single-frame method. The TRAPD technique was also more likely to detect a significant difference in wall thickness measurements when researchers compared images of the healthy patients with images of patients with CAD risk factors. Intraobserver agreement for wall thickness measurement was 0.98; interobserver agreement was 0.97; and interexamination agreement was 0.92, according to the study abstract.
“These results suggest that MRI may be used in the future to screen for individuals at risk for CAD and may be useful for monitoring the effects of therapies,” Khaled Z. Abd-Elmoniem, PhD, staff scientist in the biomedical and metabolic imaging branch of NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, said in a press release.
Disclosure: The researchers are employees of the NIH.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts