Delayed contrast-enhanced MRI of the aortic wall in Takayasu's arteritis: initial experience.
OBJECTIVE
Delayed contrast-enhanced MRI is increasingly being used for cardiac viability imaging. Takayasu's arteritis is a rare inflammatory disorder of unknown cause that affects the aorta, its major branches, and the pulmonary artery; it is characterized by inflammation and fibrosis in the arterial wall. We report our initial experience with seven patients (six women, one man; age range, 25-62 years) with delayed (20 min) gadolinium-enhanced MRI (inversion recovery prepared gated fast gradient-echo pulse sequence) in patients with known Takayasu's arteritis.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with Takayasu's arteritis (particularly those with abnormal laboratory values) have evidence of delayed hyper-enhancement on delayed contrast-enhanced MRI. Thus, delayed contrast-enhanced MRI might be a useful technique to identify inflammation in arterial wall.
Desai
Milind Y
MY
Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Stone
John H
JH
Foo
Thomas K F
TK
Hellmann
David B
DB
Lima
João A C
JA
Bluemke
David A
DA
D000328:Adult; D001018:Aortic Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D003287:Contrast Media; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013625:Takayasu Arteritis / Q000473:pathology*
D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA