High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging visualizes intracranial large artery involvement in giant cell arteritis.

OBJECTIVE

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a large vessel vasculitis, typically involving the aorta and its branches with predilection for the scalp arteries. Intracranial involvement is still part of ongoing research. We assessed inflammation of the intracranial arteries on 3D compressed sensing black-blood MRI (3D-CS-BB-MRI) in patients with GCA and age-matched controls.

METHODS

One hundred and five patients with 3D-CS-BB-MRI of the brain were included in this retrospective dual-centre case-control study, 55 with diagnosed GCA and 50 age-matched controls. High-resolution 3D-CS-BB-MRI was performed on a 3 T MR scanner with a post-contrast 3D-compressed-sensing MR pulse sequence, specifically a T1-weighted sampling perfection, application-optimized contrasts using different flip angle evolution (SPACE) pulse sequence with whole-brain coverage and isotropic resolution of 0.55 mm3. Two neuroradiologists blinded to clinical data independently scored the cerebral arteries qualitatively for inflammation; circumferential vessel wall thickening and contrast enhancement were scored positive for vasculitis.

RESULTS

Eight of 55 GCA patients (14.5%) showed inflammation of at least one intracranial artery. The internal carotid artery (ICA) was affected in 6/55 (10.9%), the vertebral artery in 4/55 (7.3%) and the basilar artery and posterior cerebral artery in 1/55 (1.8%). All patients with inflammatory changes reported headaches and none showed any focal neurological deficit. Besides headache and general weakness, there was no significant correlation between inflammation of the intracranial arteries and clinical symptoms. No age-matched control patient showed inflammatory changes of the intracranial arteries.

CONCLUSION

High-resolution 3D-CS-BB-MRI revealed inflammatory changes of intracranial arteries in 14.5% of GCA patients, with the intradural ICA as the most frequently affected vessel.