To study the value of magnetic resonance vessel wall imaging in assessing the atherosclerotic plaque burden of rabbit model.

We built up abdominal atherosclerotic animal model in 30 New Zealand rabbits by high lipid diet combined with abdominal artery denudation. The animals were divided into 3 groups randomly, which were the 1-week group, 1-month group and 2-months group. The MRI and histology examination were carried out at relative time points. The correlations of area or thickness of vessel wall by MRI with histology examination were analyzed.

Among the 30 rabbits, 3 died due to anesthesia or surgery, one rabbit model failed because of the thin vessel, and another 3 died of diarrhea or inflammation during the high lipid diet feeding. Eventually, totally 23 rabbits fulfilled the examinations (7 in 1-week group, 7 in 1-month group and 9 in 2-months group). The vessel wall area of histology examination grew larger along with the post-surgery duration, from 1.7663 mm²of 1-week group to 2.4371 mm² of the 1-month group till 3.5978 mm² of 2-months group, with statistic significant difference among 3 groups (F=5.052, P=0.017). There were strong correlations of area or thickness vessel wall resulted from MRI with histology examination(r=0.688, 0.642; P=0.001, 0.002).

High resolution MR vessel wall imaging technique may evaluate and follow up the plaque burden in the early stage of atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis; Magnetic resonance imaging