Reconstruction Of Carotid Plaque 3D Model Using Source Data From TOF-MR And CT Angiography

Objective:Quantification of carotid plaque morphology and fluid dynamics may contribute to refining risk stratification for stroke events.We assessed the feasibility and reliability of morphologic and hemodynamic measurements of carotid plaques using computed tomography angiography(CTA)and Time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography(TOF-MRA),and we determined the the quantitative measurement accuracy of the two angiography techniques by this method.Method:20 patients with symptomatic atherosclerotic plaques were retrospectively studied.Morphological parameters of carotid plaque and vascular lumen were respectively obtained by CTA and TOF-MRA analysis.Plaque volume,plaque surface area and vascular lumen surface area were measured.Computational fluid dynamic(CFD)analysis was used to assess hemodynamic parameters,including blood flow velocity.Meanwhile,Color doppler flow imaging(CDFI)hemodynamic parameters were used as the gold standard to compare the difference of blood flow velocity between CTA and TOF-MRA through CFD analysis.Results:Carotid plaque volume,surface area and lumen surface area parameters of CTA and TOF-MRA were statistically different(P<0.05).CFD analysis showed that there were significant differences between CTA and TOF-MRA in the hemodynamic parameters of internal carotid artery(P<0.001),and there was no statistical difference between CTA and CDFI(P<0.05).Conclusion:Our study evaluated the feasibility of using CTA and TOF-MRA imaging techniques to reconstruct the internal carotid artery plaque and hydrodynamic model.There were statistical differences between CTA and TOF-MRA in plaque and carotid artery morphological measurements.In the simulation of internal carotid blood flow velocity,the quantitative hemodynamic parameters of CTA were closer to CDFI than TOF-MRA.