The Added Value of Vessel Wall MRI in the Detection of Intraluminal Thrombus in Patients Suspected of Craniocervical Artery Dissection

Patients with craniocervical artery dissection (CCAD) have a high short-term risk of ischemic stroke, which is frequently associated with thromboembolism. Previous studies have demonstrated the utility of three-dimensional vessel wall MR imaging (3D-VWMRI) in the diagnosis of dissection. Few have investigated the value of 3D-VWMRI in the detection of intraluminal thrombus. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the added value of 3D-VWMRI for thrombus identification in patients suspected of CCAD. One hundred and four patients (mean age, 44.2 years ± 13.2) suspected of CCAD and scheduled for digital subtraction angiography (DSA) were prospectively enrolled in the study and underwent VWMRI examination. The diagnostic performance of 3D-VWMRI for CCAD was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis with the final diagnosis results as the reference. The presence/absence of intraluminal thrombus on 3D-VWMRI/DSA was independently determined. The sensitivity and specificity of 3D-VWMRI for intraluminal thrombus detection were assessed with DSA serving as the reference. The odds ratio (OR) was used to evaluate the correlation between thrombus presented on 3D-VWMRI/DSA and ischemic stroke. The 3D-VWMRI had high sensitivity (90.0%) and specificity (94.3%) in identifying arteries with CCAD. The area under the ROC curve was 0.96. With DSA as the reference, the sensitivity and accuracy of 3D-VWMRI for the detection of intraluminal thrombus were 97.4% and 79.0%, respectively. An intraluminal thrombus present on 3D-VWMRI was strongly associated with a territorial ischemic stroke (OR: 30.0; 95% confidence interval: 9.1-98.4; P < .001). In conclusion, 3D-VWMRI with a 3.0-T MR system had a high diagnostic performance for CCAD and offered added value for detecting intraluminal thrombus.