Plaque characteristics after endovascular treatment in patients with intracranial atherosclerotic disease.

Background: Endovascular treatment (EVT) is an alternative option for symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD). However, the effect of EVT treatment on ICAD plaques is still unclear. This study describes the ICAD plaque characteristics after EVT treatment and analyzes the effect of different EVT treatments on plaque characteristics.

Method: From 2017 January to 2022 January, ICAD patients who underwent endovascular treatment and had follow-up high-resolution magnetic resonance image (HRMRI) were enrolled in the study. Multiple plaque characteristics, including plaque enhancement, plaque burden, were measured based on preoperative, and follow-up HRMRI. Plaque characteristics and postoperative plaque changes were analyzed between different treatment groups.

Result: Finally, 50 intracranial atherosclerotic plaques in 45 patients were included. Including 28 male patients and 17 female, media age 63.0 years old. Among 50 plaques, 41 received percutaneous angioplasty (including 22 plain balloons and 19 drug-coated balloons (DCB)) and the other 9 underwent stenting. Stenosis rate, plaque burden and eccentricity index at the lesion site were significantly decreased after EVT compared with preoperative periods (p <0.001). And only the DCB group showed a significant reduction in plaque enhancement at follow-up (p < 0.001). No significant preoperative and postoperative changes in other plaque characteristics were found.

Conclusion: EVT treatment could compromise the characteristics of intracranial periarterial atherosclerotic plaques, and DCB treatment may result in a reduction in plaque enhancement after treatment.