Vessel Wall Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Explore Gender Differences of Intracranial Arterial Wall Changes After Suspected Stroke

Mortality related to cardiovascular disease in the US is improving. Yet the rate of decline is less for women than for men. Womens health is unique due to the varying reproductive stages, and differences are even greater due to gender-specific characteristics of the heart and vasculature.

While women have some unique risk factors, the predominant risk factors for stroke, such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia, are similar between genders. However, the frequency of each risk factor varies between genders resulting in differing population attributable risks. Effective screening and early management of these modifiable risk factors will have the greatest impact to stroke prevention.

The same risk factors for cardiovascular disease also underlie the development of intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD), a leading cause of stroke. Yet surprisingly, the development and progression of ICAD has not been explored in women despite its close relation to stroke. High-resolution vessel wall MR imaging (VWI) allows physicians to see vessel wall changes in the brain and may potentially serve as a noninvasive screening test for early ICAD detection.

We propose a study to prospectively evaluate women and men with stroke using VWI to estimate the prevalence of vessel wall abnormalities leading to stroke. Early detection of vessel wall changes in correlation with modifiable risk factors will help us identify opportunities for early prevention of stroke in women.