Peripheral vascular coil for peripheral MR angiography: phantom-based comparison with body coil by SNR, CNR, and visual evaluation.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the image quality of MR angiography (MRA) with a peripheral vascular coil.


METHODS
A peripheral vascular coil, a technical coil used in MRA of the pelvis and lower extremities, has 12 individual coil elements arranged in six pairs. We evaluated the performance of a peripheral vascular coil for image quality, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and visual evaluation by comparing it to a body coil using a phantom.


RESULTS
SNR with the peripheral vascular coil was 1.5-2.2 times higher than that with the body coil in vertical distance, and 1.6-1.8 times higher in horizontal distance. CNR with the peripheral vascular coil was 2.1-3.8 times higher than that with the body coil. Visual evaluation with the peripheral vascular coil was 1.1-1.2 times higher than with the body coil in spin echo sequences, and 1.2-1.9 times higher in 3D fast spoiled GRASS (3D-FSPGR) sequences.


CONCLUSIONS
The peripheral vascular coil for peripheral MRA is robust and accurate in evaluating peripheral vascular diseases.
Nagata
Tamaki
T
Department of Radiology, Kansai Medical University, 10-15 Fumizono-cho, Moriguchi, Osaka 570-8506, Japan.
Ikeda
Koshi
K
Ohmura
Naoto
N
Sawada
Satoshi
S
D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg / Q000098:blood supply*; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D016491:Peripheral Vascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted