Clinical value of MRI T2-mapping quantitative assessment of carotid plaque

Background Stroke is a severe health problem, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays a significant role in stroke. Purpose To investigate the clinical value of MRI T2-mapping in carotid artery plaque. Material and Methods To locate the plaque in the carotid artery, 25 patients with carotid atherosclerosis were examined by 3.0-T MRI with three-dimensional (3D) time-of-flight and 3D fast spin-echo (FSE) T1-weighted scanning. The original images were obtained after T2-mapping (multi-spin-echo sequence) scanning. The T2 values of the plaque in the narrowest lumen were measured on T2 maps after postprocessing of the original images. Based on the symptoms, the patients were divided into two sub-groups; independent sample t-test was employed to compare the difference between the T2 values of the plaque in the two groups. We evaluated the optimal threshold and diagnostic efficacy of T2 values in predicting cerebrovascular symptoms by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results The T2 values of the carotid artery plaque in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients were 111.43 ± 46.54 ms and 59.25 ± 39.77 ms, respectively (t = −3.421, P