Abstract
Time-resolved phase contrast (PC) MRI with velocity encoding in three directions (flow-sensitive four-dimensional MRI) can be employed to assess three-dimensional blood flow in the entire aortic lumen within a single measurement. These data can be used not only for the visualization of blood flow but also to derive additional information on vascular geometry with three-dimensional PC MR angiography (MRA). As PCMRA is sensitive to available signal-to-noise ratio, standard and novel blood pool contrast agents may help to enhance PC-MRA image quality. In a group of 30 healthy volunteers, the influence of different contrast agents on vascular signalto-noise ratio, PC-MRA quality, and subsequent three-dimensional stream-line visualization in the thoracic aorta was determined. Flow-sensitive four-dimensional MRI data acquired with contrast agent provided significantly improved signal-to-noise ratio in magnitude data and noise reduction in velocity data compared to measurements without contrast media. The agreement of three-dimensional PC-MRA with reference standard contrast-enhanced MRA was good for both contrast agents, with improved PC-MRA performance for blood pool contrast agent, particularly for the smaller supraaortic branches. For three-dimensional flow visualization, a trend toward improved results for the data with contrast agent was observed.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 330-338 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Magnetic resonance in medicine |
Volume | 63 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2010 |
Keywords
- Blood flow visualization
- Contrast agent
- Phase contrast MR angiography
- SNR
- Thoracic aorta
- Thoracic vessels
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging