MRI measurements of the brain vessel walls in patients with an ischemic stroke or TIA.

Atherosclerosis of the intracranial arteries has shown to be correlated with a high recurrent stroke risk. Our primary hypothesis is that intracranial vessel wall atheromas are an important underlying cause of obstruction of arteries of the anterior cerebral circulation. To test our hypothesis we will perform high resolution intracranial vessel wall imaging with a 7.0 Tesla MRI scanner in stroke patients and TIA patients.



For this single center prospective case control study, 50 stroke patients with occlusion of an anterior cerebral circulation artery on CT angiography and 50 TIA patients, all above 18 years of age and of all gender, will be recruited from the department of neurology of the UMCU. Our main study parameter is the presence or absence of intracranial atherosclerosis in an anterior cerebral circulation artery in the aforementioned groups; our secondary study parameters are signal characteristics of the intracranial vessel wall atheroma on multiple MRI-sequences. For collection of data, all stroke patients and TIA patients will undergo a first 7.0 Tesla MRI scan within 1 week after initial ischemic symptoms together with collection of baseline characteristics; a second 7.0 Tesla MRI scan will be performed 1 month after initial ischemic symptoms, together with one session of neuropsychological tests.



With these data we will not only be able to visualise the intracranial arterial vessel wall to obtain information on presence of atherosclerosis, but we could also ultimately provide valuable information regarding possible presence of an instable atheroma, by describing signal characteristics of these atheroma, and provide a basic understanding of the possible consequences of atherosclerosis of intracranial arteries.

Atherosclerosis of the intracranial arteries has shown to be correlated with a high recurrent stroke risk. Our primary hypothesis is that intracranial vessel wall atheromas are an important underlying cause of obstruction of arteries of the anterior cerebral circulation. To test our hypothesis we will perform high resolution intracranial vessel wall imaging with a 7.0 Tesla MRI scanner in stroke patients and TIA patients.

Stroke and TIA patients will undergo one 7 Tesla MRI scan approximately within 1 week after first symptoms, and a second 7 Tesla MRI scan together with neuropsychological tests 1 month after first symptoms.

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