The Relationship Between The Characteristics And Clinical Symptoms Of Basilar Artery Plaque With Mild Stenosis Was Studied Based On HR-MRI

Background and purposeThe vertebrobasilar artery system supplies important brain regions such as the brainstem.Mastering the characteristics of basilar atherosclerotic plaques is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of posterior circulation ischemic stroke.Therefore,in this study,high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging(HR-MRI)was used to analyze the plaque distribution,composition and related clinical features between symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with mild basilar artery stenosis.MethodsPatients with mild basilar artery stenosis(<50%)and plaques were confirmed to be included in the study after HR-MRI tube wall imaging on the basis of3D-TOF-MRA,diffusion weighted imaging(DWI)and fluid attenuated inversion recovery(FLAIR)scanning sequences.According to clinical manifestations,stroke duration and imaging manifestations,the patients were divided into the symptom group and the non-symptom group.Plaque distribution,plaque composition[intraplaque hemorrhage(IPH)、fibrous cap rupture(FCR)] and relevant clinical characteristics of the basilar artery between the two groups were analyzed.ResultsIn 108 patients with mild basilar artery stenosis accompanied by plaques(47patients in the symptom group and 61 patients in the non-symptom group),3244 images were studied,and it was found that 306 images contained plaques(plaques with the same slice of different sequences were defined as one),a total of 413plaques(A plaque that continuously affects two or more slices is counted as one),192 in the symptom group and 221 in the asymptomatic group.The proportion of side wall plaques in the symptomatic group(45.8%)was similar to that in the asymptomatic group(47.5%),and there was no statistical difference between the two groups(P=0.733).The proportion of dorsal plaques in the symptomatic group(33.9%)was larger than that in the asymptomatic group(19.0%),and the difference was statistically significant(P=0.001).The proportion of ventral plaques in the symptomatic group(20.3%)was smaller than that in the asymptomatic group(33.5%),and the difference was statistically significant(P=0.003).IPH(58.9%)and FCR(55.7%)of intraplaque hemorrhage in the symptomatic group were higher than those in the asymptomatic group(44.3% and 45.2%,respectively),with statistically significant differences(P=0.003,0.034).There was no statistically significant difference in clinical factors [age,gender,drinking,smoking,hypertension,hyperlipidemia,diabetes,family history of stroke,body mass index(BMI)] between the two groups(P>0.05).ConclusionsIn patients with mild basilar artery stenosis,the distribution of lateral plaques in the symptomatic group was similar to that in the asymptomatic group,while the plaque in the symptomatic group was more common on the dorsal side than that in the asymptomatic group,and the plaque in the asymptomatic group was more common on the ventral side than that in the asymptomatic group.The proportion of IPH and FCR in the symptomatic group was larger than that in the asymptomatic group,and the plaque in the symptomatic group was relatively more unstable.