Fig. 1.

Positive remodeling. A patient (61–65 years) with hypertension and smoking history presented with dizziness for 2 months. Coronal reconstruction image a revealed the plaque in BA distal to AICA. The line 1 represents the distal reference site; line 2, maximal-lumen-narrowing (MLN) site; line 3, proximal reference site. Cross-sectional images at the distal, MLN and proximal sites were shown in Figs. b, c and d respectively, as shown by the arrow. The vessel area (VA) is 36.53 mm² at MLN site, 28.79 mm² at distal site, and 32.13 mm² at proximal site. The reference VA is 30.46 mm². The remodeling index (RI) is 1.20 (RI ≥ 1.05, defined as positive remodeling). The lumen area (LA) is 0.51 mm² at MLN site, 7.10 mm² at distal site, and 10.61 mm² at proximal site. The reference LA is 8.86 mm². The wall area (WA) is 36.02 mm² at MLN site, and 21.6mm² at reference site. So the plaque size is 14.42 mm². The maximal wall thickness is 4.4 mm, and the minimal wall thickness is 1.8 mm. The eccentricity index is 0.59, and percentage of plaque burden is 39.5%. The plaque was distributed eccentrically and predominantly located at the right wall