Study Of Correlation Between Carotid Artery Bifurcation Angle And Atherosclerotic Plaque Volume Of Carotid Artery

Feasibility of carotid artery bifurcation angle measurement using oblique sagittal black-blood T1-weighted Sequence of MRIObjective:The aim of this study was to evaluate if oblique sagittal black-blood T1W (QIR-FSE) sequence can be used to measure the carotid bifurcation angle, and determined method of measurement.Material and Method:Patients received carotid MRI examination in Chinese PLA General Hospital from 2010 January to March were divided in two groups- normal group and plaque group.Carotid bifurcation angle was measured by 2DTOF and oblique sagittal black-blood TIW(QIR-FSE) sequence respectively, repeated after three months. We evaluated the repeatability by comparing the two times result.Measurement results using 2DTOF and oblique sagittal black-blood T1W (QIR-FSE) sequence were compared to assess the consistency of the two sequences.On oblique sagittal T1W,four groups angle were measured from different location of the carotid atery, the ratio of bilateral carotid bifurcation angle (Right/Left) of the four groups were compared to determine the metered location.Result:There are 10 cases every group after excluding three cases from 23 cases. Strong correlations were found between the results of the fist time and the second time. Strong statistic variance was found when 2DTOF was compared with oblique sagital T1W. But when we compared the ratio of bilateral carotid bifurcation angle (Right/Left),statistic variance wasn't found between the two sequences.There aren't variance among the four groups angle from different location by F test. Conclusion:The oblique sagittal black-blood T1W (QIR-FSE) sequence of MRI can be used to measure the carotid bifurcation angle,and the fist group angle can reflect the tendency of the bilateral carotid atery. Correlation Analyze between Carotid artery Bifurcation angle and Atherosclerotic Plaque Volume of Carotid Artery by MRIObjective:The aim of this study was to determin the correlation between common carotid artery bifurcation angle (CCABA),internal carotid artery angle (ICAA) and plaque volume through analyzing the variance between the bilateral carotid artery wall volume (WV),normalized wall index (NWI),maximum wall thickness (MaxWT) of the same individual.Material and Method:Patients received carotid MRI examination in Chinese PLA General Hospital from 2010 January to November were included in this study.Mutiple series include 3DTOF,T1W,PDW and T2W were performed with a 3.0T scaner.The common carotid artery bifurcation angle (CCABA), internal carotid artery angle (ICAA) were measured on oblique-sagital T1W (QIR-FSE) imaging.The lumen area(LA), total vessel area(TVA) and maximum wall thickness (MaxWT) was measured on axial T1W (QIR-FSE) imaging,then the wall volume (WV) and normalized wall index (NWI) was calculated. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to analyze variance of the bilateral wall volume (WV) normalized wall index (NWI) maximum wall thickness (MaxWT) of the same individual. Partial correlation was used to evaluate the correlation between the common carotid artery bifurcation angle ratio (CCABAR), internal carotid artery angle ratio (ICAAR) and wall volume ratio (WVR), normalized wall index ratio (NWIR).Then the cases was divided in two groups according to the difference mean of bilateral carotid angle. Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Partial correlation were used to analyze the data of the two groups respectively.Result:A total 131cases were selected,but there are 31 cases were excluded for poor imaging qulity, small scan range or the poor oblique-sagital imaging.So there are 100 cases were included in the end. Wilcoxon signed-rank test show the wall volume(WV), normalized wall index (NWI) and maximum wall thickness (MaxWT) were larger in large angle group than small angle group no matter the common carotid artery bifurcation angle (CCABA) or internal carotid artery angle (ICAA),but there is no statistical significance(p>0.05). Partial correlation showed no correlation between angle ratio and wall volum ratio (WVR), normalized wall index ratio (NWIR) no matter the common carotid artery bifurcation angle (CCABA) or internal carotid artery angle (ICAA).When the data was divided in two groups,there are also no statistical significance.Conclusion:This study indicates that the carotid artery bifurcation angle cann't influence the plaque volume,there is no correlation between the angle and plaque volume,the change of bilateral angle ratio cann't cause the change of plaque volume.