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Case – Vessel Wall Imaging with MRA - Vasculitis

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We're going to continue our talk

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about vessel wall imaging.

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This is a case of vasculitis.

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This is an 81-year-old male who had

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known vasculitis from a previous biopsy.

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He came in with a seizure and you can

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see on these FLAIR images that there's

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some leptomeningeal FLAIR hyperintensity

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in the parietal lobe,

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and there's some leptomeningeal

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enhancement on the gadolinium enhanced images.

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And again, we're just looking at that

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sulcal FLAIR hyperintensity.

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Some gadolinium enhancement and you can

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see the same phenomenon along the left temporal lobe

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and the bilateral occipital lobes,

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with some associated enhancement.

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Let me show you this SWI images.

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The patient also has some little peripheral

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foci of susceptibility that are just

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micro-hemorrhages, some larger areas

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here in the right frontal lobe,

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few in the right temporal lobe.

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You can see additional foci.

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So, some peripheral micro-hemorrhages and

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this leptomeningeal process

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which had previously been biopsied

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and proven to be vasculitis.

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So, the patient got better with steroids

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and then came in several months later

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with some right-sided visual changes.

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And he had these images.

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You can see there's a right PCA infarction.

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That's DWI, hyperintense,

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ADC, hypointense,

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FLAIR, hyperintense.

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There's a little swelling,

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so it's kind of subacute at this point.

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Also involvement of the splenium of the corpus callosum

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and the thalamus,

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and then there's a lesion in the posterior

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right corona radiata.

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His previously seen leptomeningeal

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process have resolved.

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And again, you can see on the SWI,

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you can see multiple peripheral

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micro-hemorrhages that hadn't really

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changed too much from the previous exam.

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There were no new micro-hemorrhages.

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So, we got an MRA.

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You can see on the MRA that there's

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cut off of the right PCA.

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You can see there's some stenosis

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in the left PCA.

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There's some stenosis in the right MCA.

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Some stenosis in the right internal

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carotid artery. And that was the MRA.

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Let me just show you,

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clip it in the other direction,

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again, the cutoff of a PCA.

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So now on the right MCA,

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some narrowing of the left P1 segment.

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So, we got vessel wall imaging in this patient.

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This is the vessel wall imaging.

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So you'll note,

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in the right vertebral artery,

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there's concentric enhancement

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completely surrounding the vessel.

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And then as we go up,

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that's all the way up the whole right vertebral artery,

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and then...

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And the supraclinoid internal carotid arteries,

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there appears to be concentric enhancement.

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It's a little bit hard to see in this plane,

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so we can look at the coronal images.

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And you can see there's concentric

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enhancement of that right

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internal carotid artery.

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And to a lesser extent of the left

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internal carotid artery.

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So, those were the major findings and this

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is consistent with concentric wall enhancement,

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secondary to CNS vasculitis,

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and obviously has a subacute PCA infarction.

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I just wanted to show you the right PCA

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is just diffusely enhancing just

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because there's very slow flow

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because of the clot in that location.

Report

Faculty

Pamela W Schaefer, MD, FACR

Professor of Radiology, Vice Chair of Education

Massachusetts General Hospital

Tags

Vascular Imaging

Vascular

Neuroradiology

Neuro

MRI

MRA

Head and Neck

Brain

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