Minimizing contrast agent dose during intraarterial gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography: in vitro assessment.
OBJECTIVE
To minimize contrast agent dosage for intra-arterial (IA) contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) by examining the effects of encoding order (elliptical vs. sequential) and injection duration (100% to 30% of the acquisition time).


METHODS
Catheter-based IA gadolinium (Gd) injections were performed in an arterial flow phantom. Blood flow rates, injection rates, and injection durations were systematically varied. Signal-to-noise (SNR) measurements were obtained in the aorta, renal artery, and common iliac artery.


RESULTS
No significant SNR losses were observed for any of the vessels with 75% injection duration, or for the aorta and iliac artery with 50% injection duration. Excellent images of all vessels were obtained at 50% injection duration. There was no significant SNR difference between encoding schemes.


CONCLUSIONS
Contrast agent dosage can be substantially reduced without loss of SNR by limiting injection to part of the imaging acquisition time.
Hwang
Ken-Pin
KP
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Green
Jordin D
JD
Li
Debiao
D
Simonetti
Orlando P
OP
Resnick
Scott A
SA
Finn
J Paul
JP
Duerk
Jeffrey L
JL
Omary
Reed A
RA
D001012:Aorta, Abdominal; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D007083:Iliac Artery; D007269:Injections, Intra-Arterial; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012077:Renal Artery
D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA