Enhancement of the parent artery plaque and aneurysm wall is associated with microembolic events after…

Cohort studyAJNR. American journal of neuroradiology· Aug 2026

Enhancement of the parent artery plaque and aneurysm wall is associated with microembolic events after endovascular treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms.

Qichang Fu, Linghao Li, Xinmei Ma … Chengcheng Zhu

NeuroradiologyCohort studyDiagnosisQ1IF 3.1

Parent artery plaque enhancement linked to higher odds of microembolic events after aneurysm treatment

Enhancement of the parent artery plaque and aneurysm wall is associated with microembolic events after endovascular treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms.

Qichang Fu … Chengcheng Zhu

AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology · Aug 2026 · Q1 in Radiology

Background

Endovascular treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (unruptured intracranial aneurysms) carries a potential risk of infarction due to new embolic events caused by small artery occlusion.

Purpose

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between parent artery plaque enhancement or aneurysm wall enhancement on vessel wall imaging (vessel wall imaging) and new microembolic events on diffusion-weighted imaging (diffusion-weighted imaging) after endovascular treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms.

Methods

A total of 159 patients with 159 unruptured intracranial aneurysms who underwent endovascular treatment and had preoperative MRI (including vessel wall imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging) and postoperative MRI (including diffusion-weighted imaging) were prospective enrolled in this study.

n = 159 patients

Results

plaque enhancement nearly quadruples the odds of microemboli

OR by subgroup · 95% CI

More results

Microembolic event patients had higher rates of parent artery plaque enhancement (68.6% vs 14.0%; P < 0.001) and aneurysm wall enhancement (63.7% vs 38.6%; P =0.02), as well as greater plaque enhancement ratio (median [IQR]: 1.2 [0.5-1.6] vs 0.3 [0.2-0.4], P < 0.001) and aneurysm enhancement ratio (1.0 [0.4-1.2] vs 0.6 [0.3-1.1], P =0.01), compared to non-microembolic event patients.

“

Conclusion

Parent artery plaque enhancement and aneurysm wall enhancement are correlated with an elevated risk of microembolic events after endovascular treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms.

Enhancement of the parent artery plaque and aneurysm wall is associated with microembolic events after endovascular treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms.

Enhancement of the parent artery plaque and aneurysm wall is associated with microembolic events after endovascular treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms.

Related papers