Arjen Lindenholz

136 CHAPTER 6 In this study, we hypothesize that the burden of intracranial vessel wall lesions of the larger intracranial arteries might be associated with a variety of cerebral parenchymal changes, including large and small infarcts and white matter hyperintensities. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate whether a greater burden of intracranial vessel wall lesions assessed using 7 tesla (T) vessel wall MRI is associated with more cerebral parenchymal changes. Materials and Methods Study population Between December 2009 and May 2018, patients presenting at our university hospital with TIA or ischemic stroke of the anterior circulation were eligible for inclusion in the prospective Intracranial Vessel wall Imaging (IVI) study (NTR2119, www.trialregister.nl ). The main inclusion criteria were age 18 years or older and ability to undergo a 7T MRI examination within three months after the ischemic event. The main exclusion criteria were ischemic stroke or TIA secondary to a surgical or interventional procedure and any contraindication to 7T MR imaging or to gadolinium-containing contrast agents. A flowchart of the study inclusion is shown in Figure 1. The full eligibility criteria and other details of the study have been reported before. 6,23 The study was approved by the medical ethics committee of the University Medical Center Utrecht according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 and all patients provided written informed consent. Baseline characteristics including cardiovascular risk factors and characteristics of the ischemic event (final diagnosis and subtype classified by the Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST) criteria) were recorded. 24 Figure 1: Flowchart showing the number of participants who were included for analyses. IC = informed consent.