Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-qdpjg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-20T08:35:40.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

35 - Future technical developments

from Future directions in carotid plaque imaging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2009

By
Brian K. Rutt  and
John A. Ronald
Edited by
Jonathan Gillard ,
Martin Graves ,
Thomas Hatsukami  and
Chun Yuan
Brian K. Rutt
Affiliation:
Robarts Research Institute, London ON, Canada
John A. Ronald
Affiliation:
Robarts Research Institute, London ON, Canada
Jonathan Gillard
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Martin Graves
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Thomas Hatsukami
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Chun Yuan
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Get access

Summary

Introduction

In this chapter, we speculate on future developments that are expected to improve our ability to characterize carotid atherosclerotic plaque. To this end, we first introduce the term magnetic resonance (MR) “virtual histology” as a way of organizing our thoughts about these future developments. Then we discuss some technological advancements that should eventually allow MR “virtual histology” of atherosclerosis to become a reality, and the impact that these novel technologies will have on our ability to diagnose and treat atherosclerosis.

MR virtual histology and atherosclerosis

The “gold standard” of tissue identification used in pathology is the histological staining of sections of fixed tissue from the organ of interest. Histology utilizes specific stains to differentiate between tissues, thus separating tissue types with contrasting colors. For example, to identify collagen, we use a stain that is sensitive to the chemical structure of collagen. Histological analysis of atherosclerotic plaque often involves the comparison of normal or asymptomatic tissue to tissue from patients presenting with clinical symptoms, and the subsequent identification and interpretation of any structural or compositional differences between these tissue types that may explain the clinical symptoms.

Of all the clinical imaging modalities used today, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most effective and flexible at providing contrast between different tissue types. It does this by probing the chemical environment (i.e. density, chemical and physical state of hydrogen nuclei) of different tissues.

Keywords

atherosclerosisgradient coilsMR hardware subsystemsMRIpulse sequenceplaque structure
Type
Chapter
Information
Carotid Disease
The Role of Imaging in Diagnosis and Management
 , pp. 484 - 498
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ambrose, J. A., Winters, S. L., Arora, R. R., et al. (1985). Coronary angiographic morphology in myocardial infarction: a link between the pathogenesis of unstable angina and myocardial infarction. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 6, 1233–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barkhausen, J., Ebert, W., Heyer, C., Debatin, J. F. and Weinmann, H. J. (2003). Detection of atherosclerotic plaque with Gadofluorine-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. Circulation, 108, 605–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogdanov, A. Jr., Matuszewski, L., Bremer, C., Petrovsky, A. and Weissleder, R. (2002). Oligomerization of paramagnetic substrates result in signal amplification and can be used for Magnetic resonance imaging of molecular targets. Molecular Imaging, 1, 16–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Botnar, R. M., Kim, W. Y., Bornert, P., et al. (2001). 3D coronary vessel wall imaging utilizing a local inversion technique with spiral image acquisition. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 46, 848–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brennan, M. L. and Hazen, S. L. (2003). Emerging role of myeloperoxidase and oxidant stress markers in cardiovascular risk assessment. Current Opinion in Lipidology, 14, 353–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brennan, M. L., Penn, M. S., Lente, F., et al (2003). Prognostic value of myeloperoxidase in patients with chest pain. New England Journal of Medicine, 349, 1595–604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, B. G., Zhao, X. Q., Sacco, D. E. and Albers, J. J. (1993). Lipid lowering and plaque regression. New insights into prevention of plaque disruption and clinical events in coronary disease. Circulation, 87, 1781–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, J. W., Pham, W., Weissleder, R. and Bogdanov, A. Jr. (2004). Human myeloperoxidase: a potential target for molecular Magnetic resonance imaging in atherosclerosis. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 52, 1021–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chronik, B. A., Alejski, A. and Rutt, B. K. (2000). Design and fabrication of a three-axis edge ROU head and neck gradient coil. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 44, 955–63.3.0.CO;2-1>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chronik, B. A. and Rutt, B. K. (2001a). A comparison between human magnetostimulation thresholds in whole-body and head/neck gradient coils. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 46, 386–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chronik, B. A. and Rutt, B. K. (2001b). Simple linear formulation for magnetostimulation specific to Magnetic resonance imaging gradient coils. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 45, 916–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, S. E., Beletsky, V., Hammond, R. R., Hegele, R. A. and Rutt, B. K. (2006). Validation of automatically classified magnetic resonance images for carotid plaque compositional analysis. Stroke, 37, 93–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clarke, S. E., Hammond, R. R., Mitchell, J. R. and Rutt, B. K. (2003). Quantitative assessment of carotid plaque composition using multicontrast Magnetic resonance imaging and registered histology. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 50, 1199–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coristine, A. J. F. P., Deoni, S. C. L., Heyn, C. and Rutt, B. K. (2004). Positive contrast labelling of spio loaded cells in cell samples and spinal chord injury. International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 12th Annual Scientific Meeting and Exhibition. Kyoto, Japan.Google Scholar
Cunningham, C. H., Arai, T., Yang, P. C., et al. (2005). Positive contrast magnetic resonance imaging of cells labeled with magnetic nanoparticles. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 53, 999–1005.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deoni, S. C., Peters, T. M. and Rutt, B. K. (2004a). Determination of optimal angles for variable nutation proton magnetic spin-lattice, T1, and spin-spin, T2, relaxation times measurement. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 51, 194–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deoni, S. C., Peters, T. M. and Rutt, B. K. (2004b). Quantitative diffusion imaging with steady-state free precession. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 51, 428–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deoni, S. C., Rutt, B. K. and Peters, T. M. (2003). Rapid combined T1 and T2 mapping using gradient recalled acquisition in the steady state. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 49, 515–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edelman, R. R., Chien, D. and Kim, D. (1991). Fast selective black blood Magnetic resonance imaging. Radiology, 181, 655–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falk, E. (1999). Stable versus unstable atherosclerosis: clinical aspects. American Heart Journal, 138, S421–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Falk, E. and Fernandez-Ortiz, A. (1995). Role of thrombosis in atherosclerosis and its complications. American Journal of Cardiology, 75, 3B-11B.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fayad, Z. A. and Fuster, V. (2000). Characterization of atherosclerotic plaques by magnetic resonance imaging. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 902, 173–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fayad, Z. A., Nahar, T., Fallon, J. T., et al. (2000). In vivo magnetic resonance evaluation of atherosclerotic plaques in the human thoracic aorta: a comparison with transesophageal echocardiography. Circulation, 101, 2503–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fuster, V., Badimon, L., Badimon, J. J. and Chesebro, J. H. (1992). The pathogenesis of coronary artery disease and the acute coronary syndromes (2). New England Journal of Medicine, 326, 310–18.
Green, D., Leggett, J. and Bowtell, R. (2005). Hemispherical gradient coils for magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 54, 656–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hadley, J. R., Chapman, B. E., Roberts, J. A., et al. (2000). A three-coil comparison for Magnetic resonance angiography. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 11, 458–68.3.0.CO;2-D>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, C., Hatsukami, T. S. and Yuan, C. (2001). A multi-scale method for automatic correction of intensity non-uniformity in Magnetic resonance images. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 13, 428–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, C. E., Mathis, C. M. and Yuan, C. (1996). Surface coil phased arrays for high-resolution imaging of the carotid arteries. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 6, 109–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heinecke, J. W. (2003). Oxidative stress: new approaches to diagnosis and prognosis in atherosclerosis. American Journal of Cardiology, 91, 12A–16A.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hyafil, F., Laissy, J. P., Mazighi, M., et al. (2006). Ferumoxtran-10-enhanced Magnetic resonance imaging of the hypercholesterolemic rabbit aorta: relationship between signal loss and macrophage infiltration. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 26, 176–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Itskovich, V. V., Choudhury, R. P., Aguinaldo, J. G., et al. (2003). Characterization of aortic root atherosclerosis in ApoE knockout mice: high-resolution in vivo and ex vivo Magnetic resonanceM with histological correlation. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 49, 381–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Itskovich, V. V., Mani, V., Mizsei, G., et al. (2004a). Parallel and nonparallel simultaneous multislice black-blood double inversion recovery techniques for vessel wall imaging. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 19, 459–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Itskovich, V. V., Samber, D. D., Mani, V., et al. (2004b). Quantification of human atherosclerotic plaques using spatially enhanced cluster analysis of multicontrast-weighted magnetic resonance images. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 52, 515–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, S. E., Kholmovski, E. G., Jeong, E. K., et al. (2004). Triple contrast technique for black blood imaging with double inversion preparation. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 52, 1379–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, W. Y., Stuber, M., Bornert, P., et al. (2002). Three-dimensional black-blood cardiac magnetic resonance coronary vessel wall imaging detects positive arterial remodeling in patients with nonsignificant coronary artery disease. Circulation, 106, 296–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koktzoglou, I. H. K. R., Kane, B. J., Tang, R., et al. (2005). Gadofluorine-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of atherosclerotic plaque in swine. International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 13th Scientific Meeting and Exhibition. South Beach, Miami.Google Scholar
Kooi, M. E., Cappendijk, V. C., Cleutjens, K. B., et al. (2003). Accumulation of ultrasmall superparamagnetic particles of iron oxide in human atherosclerotic plaques can be detected by in vivo magnetic resonance imaging. Circulation, 107, 2453–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Larose, E., Yeghiazarians, Y., Libby, P., et al. (2005). Characterization of human atherosclerotic plaques by intravascular magnetic resonance imaging. Circulation, 112, 2324–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, R. T. (2000). Plaque stabilization: the role of lipid lowering. International Journal of Cardiology, 74 (Suppl. 1), S11–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leiner, T., Gerretsen, S., Botnar, R., et al. (2005). Magnetic resonance imaging of atherosclerosis. European Radiology, 15, 1087–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Libby, P. and Aikawa, M. (2002). Stabilization of atherosclerotic plaques: new mechanisms and clinical targets. Nature Medicine, 8, 1257–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Libby, P., Ridker, P. M. and Maseri, A. (2002). Inflammation and atherosclerosis. Circulation, 105, 1135–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mani, V., Itskovich, V. V., Aguiar, S. H., et al. (2005). Comparison of gated and non-gated fast multislice black-blood carotid imaging using rapid extended coverage and inflow/outflow saturation techniques. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 22, 628–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mani, V., Itskovich, V. V., Szimtenings, M., et al. (2004). Rapid extended coverage simultaneous multisection black-blood vessel wall Magnetic resonance imaging. Radiology, 232, 281–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, J. M. and Davies, M. J. (1996). Vulnerable plaque. Relation of characteristics to degree of stenosis in human coronary arteries. Circulation, 94, 928–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, A. J., Gotlieb, A. I. and Henkelman, R. M. (1995). High-resolution Magnetic resonance imaging of human arteries. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 5, 93–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitani, H., Egashira, K. and Kimura, M. (2003). HMG-b-hydroxy-b-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitor, fluvastatin, has cholesterol-lowering independent “direct” effects on atherosclerotic vessels in high cholesterol diet-fed rabbits. Pharmacology Research, 48, 417–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morrisett, J., Vick, W., Sharma, R., et al. (2003). Discrimination of components in atherosclerotic plaques from human carotid endarterectomy specimens by magnetic resonance imaging ex vivo. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 21, 465–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murakami, J. W., Hayes, C. E. and Weinberger, E. (1996). Intensity correction of phased-array surface coil images. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 35, 585–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nayak, K. S., Rivas, P. A., Pauly, J. M., et al. (2001). Real-time black-blood Magnetic resonance imaging using spatial presaturation. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 13, 807–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, D. L., Goodrich, K. C., Masiker, M., Tsuruda, J. S. and Katzman, G. L. (2002). Improved efficiency in double-inversion fast spin-echo imaging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 47, 1017–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pintaske, J., Martirosian, P., Claussen, C. D. and Schick, F. (2005). Positive contrast in the detection of magnetically labeled cells by Magnetic resonance imaging – in vitro experiments. Biomedical Technology (Berl), 50, 271–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pipe, J. G., Farthing, V. G. and Forbes, K. P. (2002). Multishot diffusion-weighted FSE using PROPELLER Magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 47, 42–52.
Ronen, R. R., Clarke, S. E., Hammond, R. R. and Rutt, B. K. (2006). Resolution and SNR effects on carotid plaque classification. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 56, 290–5.
Ruehm, S. G., Corot, C., Vogt, P., Cristina, H. and Debatin, J. F. (2002). Ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide-enhanced Magnetic resonance imaging of atherosclerotic plaque in hyperlipidemic rabbits. Academy of Radiology, 9 (Suppl. 1), S143–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruehm, S. G., Corot, C., Vogt, P., Kolb, S. and Debatin, J. F. (2001). Magnetic resonance imaging of atherosclerotic plaque with ultrasmall superparamagnetic particles of iron oxide in hyperlipidemic rabbits. Circulation, 103, 415–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarlls, J. E., Newbould, R. D., Altbach, M. I., et al. (2005). Isotropic diffusion weighting in radial fast spin-echo magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 53, 1347–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmitz, S. A., Coupland, S. E., Gust, R., et al. (2000). Superparamagnetic iron oxide-enhanced Magnetic resonance imaging of atherosclerotic plaques in Watanabe hereditable hyperlipidemic rabbits. Investigative Radiology, 35, 460–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmitz, S. A., Taupitz, M., Wagner, S., et al. (2001). Magnetic resonance imaging of atherosclerotic plaques using superparamagnetic iron oxide particles. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 14, 355–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simonetti, O. P., Finn, J. P., White, R. D., Laub, G. and Henry, D. A. (1996). “Black blood” T2-weighted inversion-recovery Magnetic resonance imaging of the heart. Radiology, 199, 49–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sirol, M., Itskovich, V. V., Mani, V., et al. (2004). Lipid-rich atherosclerotic plaques detected by gadofluorine-enhanced in vivo magnetic resonance imaging. Circulation, 109, 2890–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Song, H. K., Wright, A. C., Wolf, R. L. and Wehrli, F. W. (2002). Multislice double inversion pulse sequence for efficient black-blood Magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 47, 616–20.
Steinman, D. A. and Rutt, B. K. (1998). On the nature and reduction of plaque-mimicking flow artifacts in black blood Magnetic resonance imaging of the carotid bifurcation. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 39, 635–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stemerman, D. H., Krinsky, G. A., Lee, V. S., et al. (1999). Thoracic aorta: rapid black-blood Magnetic resonance imaging with half-Fourier rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement with or without electrocardiographic triggering. Radiology, 213, 185–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sugiyama, S., Okada, Y., Sukhova, G. K., et al. (2001). Macrophage myeloperoxidase regulation by granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor in human atherosclerosis and implications in acute coronary syndromes. American Journal of Pathology, 158, 879–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Toussaint, J. F., Lamuraglia, G. M., Southern, J. F., Fuster, V. and Kantor, H. L. (1996). Magnetic resonance images lipid, fibrous, calcified, hemorrhagic, and thrombotic components of human atherosclerosis in vivo. Circulation, 94, 932–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trivedi, R. A., U-King-Im, J. M., Graves, M. J., et al. (2004). In vivo detection of macrophages in human carotid atheroma: temporal dependence of ultrasmall superparamagnetic particles of iron oxide-enhanced Magnetic resonance imaging. Stroke, 35, 1631–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingersleben, G., Schmiedl, U. P., Hatsukami, T. S., et al. (1997). Characterization of atherosclerotic plaques at the carotid bifurcation: correlation of high-resolution Magnetic resonance imaging with histologic analysis – preliminary study. Radiographics, 17, 1417–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welt, F. G. and Simon, D. I. (2001). Atherosclerosis and plaque rupture. Catheterization and Cardiovascular Intervention, 53, 56–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Worthley, S. G., Helft, G., Fuster, V., et al. (2003). A novel nonobstructive intravascular Magnetic resonance imaging coil: in vivo imaging of experimental atherosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 23, 346–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yarnykh, V. L. and Yuan, C. (2002). T1-insensitive flow suppression using quadruple inversion-recovery. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 48, 899–905.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yarnykh, V. L. and Yuan, C. (2003). Multislice double inversion-recovery black-blood imaging with simultaneous slice reinversion. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 17, 478–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yuan, C. and Kerwin, W. S. (2004). Magnetic resonance imaging of atherosclerosis. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 19, 710–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yuan, C., Mitsumori, L. M., Beach, K. W. and Maravilla, K. R. (2001). Carotid atherosclerotic plaque: noninvasive Magnetic resonance characterization and identification of vulnerable lesions. Radiology, 221, 285–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yuan, C., Skinner, M. P., Kaneko, E., et al. (1996). Magnetic resonance imaging to study lesions of atherosclerosis in the hyperlipidemic rabbit aorta. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 14, 93–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zaman, A. G., Helft, G., Worthley, S. G. and Badimon, J. J. (2000). The role of plaque rupture and thrombosis in coronary artery disease. Atherosclerosis, 149, 251–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, B., Yen, Y. F., Chronik, B. A., et al. (2003). Peripheral nerve stimulation properties of head and body gradient coils of various sizes. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 50, 50–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×