Magnetic resonance monitoring of stent deployment: in vitro evaluation of different stent designs and stent delivery systems.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate MR imaging features of commercially available stents before, during, and after in vitro deployment as a step toward MR-guided stent deployment.


METHODS
Fourteen stents were deployed in a phantom under MR monitoring at 1.5 T by using a gradient-echo sequence. Device visibility was rated on a four-point scale (excellent, fair, poor, not visible).


RESULTS
The Memotherm stent and the rolling membrane (RM) Wallstent showed excellent stent visibility and at least fair scores for artifact-induced narrowing of the stent lumen. Three stents (Palmaz, AVE, Easy Wallstent) showed excellent visibility of the stent but no visible lumen. Five stents (Strecker, Accuflex, Hemobahn, Passager, Sinus) displayed fair visibility. The delivery catheters of four stent systems (Smart, Vascucoil, Symphony, ZA) displayed severe black hole artifacts.


CONCLUSIONS
The imaging features of several stent systems might be suitable for MR-guided intervention. The Memotherm and the Wallstent RM combine good visibility of the stent and the lumen.
Manke
C
C
Department of Radiology, University of Regensburg, Germany.
Nitz
W R
WR
Lenhart
M
M
Völk
M
M
Geissler
A
A
Feuerbach
S
S
Link
J
J
D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D002406:Catheterization, Peripheral / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000379:methods; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011474:Prosthesis Design / Q000379:methods*; D015607:Stents