Synopsis

Keywords: Neuro: Cerebrovascular, Cardiovascular: Vascular

Cerebrovascular disease, a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, can arise from diverse intracranial vessel wall pathologies such as atherosclerosis, dissection, and vasculitis. Methods traditionally used for the diagnosis of the disease are based on lumenography imaging, which is limited to the detection of luminal abnormalities and thus inadequate for differentiating various wall pathologies. Recently, there is a growing interest in intracranial MR vessel wall imaging due to its capacity to directly assess various vessel wall pathologies and to potentially unravel etiology. This talk will provide an overview of technical advances and clinical applications of this new technology.