Evaluation of Cranial and Cervical Arteries and Brain Tissue in Transient Ischemic Attack Patients with Magnetic Resonance Angiography and Diffusion-Weighted Imaging

BACKGROUND Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) have been widely used in the prediction of ischemic stroke; however, the differences of the 2 methods in detection the artery lesion differences between transient ischemic attack (TIA) and infarction patients have been long neglected. We performed the present study to investigate the differences between vessel characteristics detected by MRA and DWI in acute stroke and TIA patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS We classified 110 subjects into 2 groups and all the patients underwent both MRA and DWI. The degree of stenosis of cranial and cervical arteries, the distribution of the stenosis, the development and changes of the vessels, and the DWI scanning results of the brain tissue were all analyzed. RESULTS We detected a significant difference in the number and the degree of stenosis of cranial and cervical arteries among the 3 groups (P=0.006). Compared with health controls, patients with TIA and cerebral infraction had much more severe stenosis and occlusive arteries (P