Plaque distribution of low-grade basilar artery atherosclerosis and its clinical relevance

摘要

Background The underlying pathophysiology of BA distribution is unclear and intriguing. Using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI), we sought to explore the plaque distribution of low-grade basilar artery (BA) atherosclerosis and its clinical relevance. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the imaging and clinical data of 61 patients with low-grade atherosclerotic BA stenosis (Results Twenty-five symptomatic and thirty-six asymptomatic BAs with 752 HR-MRI image slices were studied. The average length of BA atherosclerosis plaques was 12.16?±?5.61mm (10.30?±?6.44mm in symptomatic and 13.46?±?7.03mm in asymptomatic patients, p =?0.079). The plaque distribution was similar at ventral (29.0%), dorsal (37.6%) and lateral walls (33.1%). The BA plaques in symptomatic patients were more frequently located at the dorsal (42.5%) and lateral (41.2%) walls than at the ventral walls (16.1%; P Conclusions Low-grade BA atherosclerosis has a long distribution and evenly involves ventral, dorsal and lateral walls. The plaques at dorsal and lateral walls are associated with symptomatic pontine infarcts but not with silent infarcts.