Key result
Vessel wall and molecular imaging may predict cerebrovascular disease progression and inform clinical decisions.
C urrently, diagnosis of intracranial large vessel patholo- gies is based on luminal appearance using angiographic studies either noninvasively with magnetic resonance (MR) or computed tomography or invasively with catheter angiography. However, exciting new methodologies are in development that allow imaging beyond the lumen to characterize the disease process of the vessel wall. Inflammation has been implicated in large artery cerebrovascular lesions, having a role in the progression of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerosis, 3 growth and rupture of brain aneurysms, 4 delayed cerebral ischemia after subarachnoid hemorrhage, 5 and rupture risk of brain arteriovenous malformations. Imaging the spatial distribution, severity, and temporal changes in cerebrovascular inflammation may offer insight into the clinical diagnosis and treatment decisions in the near future. Substantial challenges remain for the development of high-resolution, specific, and sensitive techniques to quantify patterns of inflammation in large intracranial arteries. This review serves to highlight developments in vascular wall imaging and molecular imaging techniques to better elucidate the predictive value of vascular inflammation in the progression of cerebrovascular disease.
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Gounis et al. (2015) conducted a review in Cerebrovascular Disease. Vascular wall and molecular imaging techniques was evaluated. Vascular wall and molecular imaging techniques assessing cerebrovascular inflammation may provide predictive value for disease progression and inform future clinical diagnosis and treatment decisions.
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