Article Text
Abstract
Background This study was performed to quantify intracranial aneurysm wall thickness (AWT) and enhancement using 7T MRI, and their relationship with aneurysm size and type.
Methods 27 patients with 29 intracranial aneurysms were included. Three-dimensional T1 weighted pre‐ and post-contrast fast spin echo with 0.4 mm isotropic resolution was used. AWT was defined as the full width at half maximum on profiles of signal intensity across the aneurysm wall on pre-contrast images. Enhancement ratio (ER) was defined as the signal intensity of the aneurysm wall over that of the brain parenchyma. The relationships between AWT, ER, and aneurysm size and type were investigated.
Results 7T MRI revealed large variations in AWT (range 0.11–1.24 mm). Large aneurysms (>7 mm) had thicker walls than small aneurysms (≤7 mm) (0.49±0.05 vs 0.41±0.05 mm, p<0.001). AWT was similar between saccular and fusiform aneurysms (p=0.546). Within each aneurysm, a thicker aneurysm wall was associated with increased enhancement in 28 of 29 aneurysms (average r=0.65, p<0.05). Thicker walls were observed in enhanced segments (ER >1) than in non-enhanced segments (0.53±0.09 vs 0.38±0.07 mm, p<0.001).
Conclusion Improved image quality at 7T allowed quantification of intracranial AWT and enhancement. A thicker aneurysm wall was observed in larger aneurysms and was associated with stronger enhancement.
- aneurysm
- MRI
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Footnotes
XL and JF are joint first authors.
XL and JF contributed equally.
Contributors Protocol/project development: XL, ZZ, CZ, and YL. Data collection or management: JF, ZL, LP, XH, YJ, PJ, QK, XC, YW, HG, HJ, and JA. Data analysis: XL, JF, ZL, QZ, DAS, and CZ.
Funding This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82001804, 81901197 and 31730039); the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (7191003); the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2019YFA0707103); and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB32010300). Chengcheng Zhu is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant R00HL136883.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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