Fig. 1

Carotid MR images of an ICA plaque in a 70-year-old diabetic male who had symptomatic left MCA stroke, who had NIHS score of 8 at admission, and no prior cerebrovascular events were detected to have 72% stenosis in MR TOF (a, b), with the ICA plaque (arrows) showing TOF(A) and T1 (c) hyperintensity indicative of intraplaque hemorrhage. The plaque appeared predominantly hyperintense in T2 (d), PD (e), and T2FS (f). DWI image (g) showing plaque with inset showing ADC map with margins of vessel wall and vessel lumen demarcated by line tracing adapted from corresponding T2FS image. The plaque had average ADC value of 0.83 × 10^–3 mm²/s. Histopathological images (h, i) of the same plaque showing intraplaque hemorrhage (*) containing RBCs admixed with few cholesterol clefts. (Hematoxylin and eosin, h original magnification 50×, scale bar 200 μm, i original magnification 200×, scale bar 50 μm)