title: MR angiography with sensitivity encoding (SENSE) for suspected pulmonary embolism: comparison with MDCT and ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of our study was to determine the utility of time-resolved contrast-enhanced MR angiography combined with sensitivity encoding (SENSE) for patients with pulmonary embolism. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Forty-eight consecutive patients (26 men and 22 women; age range, 27-73 years; mean age, 55 years) with suspected pulmonary embolism underwent chest radiography, contrast-enhanced MDCT, MR angiography with SENSE, ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy, and pulmonary angiography. MR angiography with SENSE was performed using IV administration of gadolinium contrast medium with a 3D turbo field-echo pulse sequence (TR/TE, 4.0/1.2; flip angle, 30 degrees ) on a 1.5-T scanner. Capabilities of diagnosing pulmonary embolism using MR angiography (data set A), contrast-enhanced MDCT (data set B), contrast-enhanced MDCT with MR angiography (data set C), ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy (data set D), and contrast-enhanced MDCT with ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy (data set E) were determined by receiver operating characteristic analysis, using the results of pulmonary angiography as the reference standard. The diagnostic capability of each data set was analyzed on a per-vascular zone and a per-patient basis with the McNemar test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sensitivity and specificity of data set A were 83% and 97%, respectively, on a per-vascular zone basis and 92% and 94%, respectively, on a per-patient basis. Specificity and accuracy of data set A were significantly higher than those of data set D on a per-patient basis (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Time-resolved MR angiography with SENSE is effective for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-2 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0017, Japan. yosirad@kobe-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yoshiharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohno
authors.forename: Takanori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Higashino
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Takenaka
authors.forename: Kouji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugimoto
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshikawa
authors.forename: Hiroya
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: Hiroto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hatabu
authors.forename: Kazuro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugimura
mesh_terms: D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012372:ROC Curve; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014692:Ventilation-Perfusion Ratio
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media