Evaluation of hyperintense vessels on FLAIR MRI for the diagnosis of multiple intracerebral arterial stenoses.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Hyperintense vessel sign (HVS) on fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) has been described in hyperacute stroke patients with arterial occlusion. We sought to determine whether HVS was more frequent in patients with intracerebral arterial stenoses than in those without stenosis regardless of the presence of a brain infarct.

METHODS

In this case-control study (19 symptomatic patients with multiple intracerebral arterial stenoses compared with 19 age-matched asymptomatic patients without stenosis), we looked for HVS (ie, focal or tubular hyperintensities in the subarachnoid space) on FLAIR images. We compared the proportion of HVS-positive patients in the 2 groups and evaluated the concordance between the arterial distribution of stenoses on angiogram and that of HVS on FLAIR.

RESULTS

HVS was found in 13 of 19 patients (68%) in the study group and 1 of 19 control patients (5.2%) (P<0.0001). The concordance between the territorial distribution of stenoses on angiogram and HVS on FLAIR was higher for the right and left middle cerebral artery (kappa=0.6 and 0.63, respectively) compared with the right and left anterior cerebral artery (kappa=0.35 and 0.2, respectively). HVSs were observed in 1 of 7 patients with posterior cerebral artery stenoses on angiogram. HVSs were seen equally in patients with acute focal (7 of 10) or diffuse (6 of 9) cerebral involvement. In the 6 HVS-positive patients with acute stroke confirmed by MRI, additional HVSs were observed in a different arterial territory than that of the stroke lesion.

CONCLUSIONS

Although their significance remains unclear, multiple HVSs are more frequently observed in symptomatic patients with multiple intracerebral stenoses than in asymptomatic patients without stenosis.