Three-dimensional contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography in aortic diseases.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the feasibility of performing high resolution reconstructed three-dimensional aortic angiography on a 1 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging scanner in patients with aortic diseases.


METHODS
Seventeen patients underwent thirty-one MR exams that included fast spin echo, gradient echo and time-of-flight angiography acquisitions after administration of a commercially available gadolinium contrast agent injected as a bolus.


RESULTS
All scans were well tolerated and aortic lumen opacification was achieved at the appropriate time in all patients. The angiography scans were obtained with breath-held sequences that required approximately 25 seconds to scan and six to eight minutes to form a three-dimensional reconstruction.


CONCLUSIONS
Three-dimensional aortic angiography is feasible on a 1 Tesla scanner, with images of extremely high quality and resolution, achieved in a few minutes. It is possible to acquire all the information that conventional or fast spin echo provides from the reconstructed three-dimensional scans, avoiding the need for the cumbersome acquisition of the spin echo images, improving speed and decreasing imaging times, which may be of importance in patients with acute aortic syndromes.
D001018:Aortic Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003287:Contrast Media; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography
D003287:Contrast Media