Synopsis

Extracranial vasculopathy assessment, has primarily focused on carotid atherosclerotic disease, as this represents the most common extracranial vasculopathy. In the current lecture, we evaluate less frequently discussed extracranial vasculopathies, specifically blunt cerebral vascular injury and dissection and large artery inflammatory vasculopathies. We discuss disease background, current limitations in imaging paradigms and the value of vessel wall MRI, represented through case examples. In addition, we briefly discuss carotid atherosclerotic disease, providing examples of pronounced plaque burden but with limited luminal stenosis, and discuss automated, quantitative algorithms for plaque evaluation, that may improve clinical adoption of vessel wall MRI in plaque characterization.