{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,26]],"date-time":"2026-07-26T06:01:22Z","timestamp":1785045682849,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,28]],"date-time":"2026-01-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769558400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Neurol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To investigate clinical factors associated with unstable intracranial plaques and examine the relationship between pre-stroke statin use and plaque instability using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we enrolled 116 patients with acute anterior circulation cerebral infarction (within 7\u202fdays of onset) due to symptomatic intracranial atherosclerosis, all of whom underwent HR-MRI during hospitalization. Based on pre-stroke statin exposure, patients were grouped into a no-statin group and a statin-treatment group; based on culprit-plaque enhancement, they were further divided into enhancement and non-enhancement groups. Using HR-MRI, we systematically evaluated vascular morphometrics of the culprit artery (vessel area, lumen area, degree of stenosis, and remodeling index) and plaque activity parameters (enhancement grade).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Eighteen patients (15.5%) had used statins prior to stroke onset. Compared with the no-statin group, the statin group had significantly lower total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and non\u2013high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.001,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f&amp;lt;\u202f0.001,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f&amp;lt;\u202f0.001). Infarct-pattern distributions differed between groups (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.023): in the statin group, deep-only infarcts (50.0%) and cortical-only infarcts (33.3%) were more frequent, whereas large cortical\/cortical\u2013deep infarcts predominated in the no-statin group (50.0%). Plaque enhancement was less frequent in the statin group (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.015) multivariable logistic regression, identified body mass index (BMI) (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.021; OR\u202f=\u202f1. 157; 95% CI: 1.023\u20131.309) and lack of statin use (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.028; OR\u202f=\u202f3.351; 95% CI: 1.143\u20139.823) as independent factors associated with plaque enhancement.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Pre-stroke statin therapy stabilizes intracranial plaques by lowering lipids and suppressing plaque enhancement. It independently protects against enhancement and is associated with fewer large cortical infarctions, whereas elevated BMI is an independent risk factor for enhancement.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fneur.2026.1724878","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,28]],"date-time":"2026-01-28T06:45:42Z","timestamp":1769582742000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Effects of statins on plaque characteristics of intracranial atherosclerosis assessed by high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Hongshan","family":"Chu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Hebei General Hospital","place":["Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shibo","family":"Dong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Imaging, Hebei General Hospital","place":["Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hongyu","family":"Hao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Hebei General Hospital","place":["Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruisheng","family":"Duan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Hebei General Hospital","place":["Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"158","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1747-4949.2006.00045.x","article-title":"Global burden of intracranial atherosclerosis","volume":"1","author":"Wong","year":"2006","journal-title":"Int J Stroke"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"9","DOI":"10.5469\/neuroint.2014.9.1.9","article-title":"High-resolution MRI of intracranial atherosclerotic disease","volume":"9","author":"Ryu","year":"2014","journal-title":"Neurointervention"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"559","DOI":"10.1016\/s1474-4422(19)30035-3","article-title":"Imaging biomarkers of vulnerable carotid plaques for stroke risk prediction and their potential clinical implications","volume":"18","author":"Saba","year":"2019","journal-title":"Lancet Neurol"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"434","DOI":"10.1161\/STROKEAHA.115.009955","article-title":"Patterns and implications of intracranial arterial remodeling in stroke patients","volume":"47","author":"Qiao","year":"2016","journal-title":"Stroke"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"30","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0133433","article-title":"The effect of statin therapy on coronary plaque composition using virtual histology intravascular ultrasound: a meta-analysis","volume":"10","author":"Zheng","year":"2015","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"10734","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms160510734","article-title":"Ultrasound assessment of carotid plaque echogenicity response to statin therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis","volume":"16","author":"Ibrahimi","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int J Mol Sci"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1081","DOI":"10.1161\/01.str.31.5.1081","article-title":"Impact on stroke subtype diagnosis of early diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance angiography","volume":"31","author":"Lee","year":"2000","journal-title":"Stroke"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"341","DOI":"10.1212\/wnl.50.2.341","article-title":"Large infarcts in the middle cerebral artery territory. 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