Published Online
on March 19, 2009

A more recent version of this article appeared on May 1, 2009

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Original Article

In vivo quantification of carotid artery wall dimensions: 3.0 Tesla MRI versus B-mode ultrasound imaging.

Raphael Duivenvoorden¹; Eric de Groot¹; Bart M. Elsen¹; Johan S. Laméris¹; Rob J. van der Geest²; Erik S. Stroes¹; John J.P. Kastelein¹ and Aart J. Nederveen^1,3

¹ Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
² Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

³ E-mail: a.j.nederveen{at}amc.uva.nl

Background—Our aim was to compare common carotid Mean Wall Thickness (MWT) measurements by 3.0 Tesla MRI to B-mode ultrasound (US) common carotid intima-media thickness (CCIMT) measurements, a validated surrogate marker for cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods and Results—3.0 Tesla MRI and B-mode ultrasound scans of the left and right common carotid arteries were repeated three times in 15 healthy younger volunteers (aged 26±2.6 years), 15 healthy older volunteers (aged 57±3.2 years) and 15 subjects with CVD and carotid atherosclerosis (aged 63±9.8 years). MWT was 0.711 (SD 0.229) mm and mean CCIMT was 0.800 (SD 0.206) mm. MWT and CCIMT were highly correlated (r=0.89, p<0.001). The intraclass correlation coefficients for interscan and inter- and intraobserver agreements of MRI MWT measurements were larger than 0.95 with small confidence intervals, indicating excellent reproducibility. Power calculations indicate that 89 subjects are required to detect a 4% difference in MRI MWT compared to 469 subjects to detect similar differences with US IMT in follow-up studies.

Conclusion—The study data for carotid MRI and ultrasound IMT showed strong agreement, indicating that both modalities measure the thickness of the intima and media. The advantage of MRI over US is that the measurement variability is smaller, enabling smaller sample sizes and potentially shorter study duration in cardiovascular prevention trials.

Key Words: atherosclerosis • carotid arteries • magnetic resonance imaging • ultrasonics • intima-media thickness

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