Objective To assess the feasibility and reproducibility of High-Resolution MRI (HRMRI) for the identification of middle cerebral artery (MCA) atherosclerotic plaque components.To evaluate the relationship between MCA plaque characteristics and the types of stroke.Methods One hundred and twenty eight consecutive subjects who initially had ischemic stroke or asymptomatic MCA stenosis were enrolled in the study.All the subjects were scanned with 3.0T MR.HRMRI for M1 segment of MCA,brain MRI and MRA (3D-TOF) were performed to identify plaque components and understand the infarct patterns.Two readers independently analyzed the images and one reader reevaluated all images.