Multislice dark-blood carotid artery wall imaging: a 1.5 T and 3.0 T comparison.
OBJECTIVE
To compare two multislice turbo spin-echo (TSE) carotid artery wall imaging techniques at 1.5 T and 3.0 T, and to investigate the feasibility of higher spatial resolution carotid artery wall imaging at 3.0 T.


METHODS
Multislice proton density-weighted (PDW), T2-weighted (T2W), and T1-weighted (T1W) inflow/outflow saturation band (IOSB) and rapid extended coverage double inversion-recovery (REX-DIR) TSE carotid artery wall imaging was performed on six healthy volunteers at 1.5 T and 3.0 T using time-, coverage-, and spatial resolution-matched (0.47 x 0.47 x 3 mm3) imaging protocols. To investigate whether improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at 3.0 T could allow for improved spatial resolution, higher spatial resolution imaging (0.31 x 0.31 x 3 mm3) was performed at 3.0 T. Carotid artery wall SNR, carotid lumen SNR, and wall-lumen contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were measured.


RESULTS
Signal gain at 3.0 T relative to 1.5 T was observed for carotid artery wall SNR (223%) and wall-lumen CNR (255%) in all acquisitions (P < 0.025). IOSB and REX-DIR images were found to have different levels of SNR and CNR (P < 0.05) with IOSB values observed to be larger. Normalized to a common imaging time, the higher spatial resolution imaging at 3.0 T and the lower spatial resolution imaging at 1.5 T provided similar levels of wall-lumen CNR (P = NS).


CONCLUSIONS
Multislice carotid wall imaging at 3.0 T with IOSB and REX-DIR benefits from improved SNR and CNR relative to 1.5 T, and allows for higher spatial resolution carotid artery wall imaging.
Department of Radiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA. i-koktzoglou@northwestern.edu
Ioannis
I
Koktzoglou
Yiu-Cho
YC
Chung
Venkatesh
V
Mani
Timothy J
TJ
Carroll
Mark D
MD
Morasch
Gabor
G
Mizsei
Orlando P
OP
Simonetti
Zahi A
ZA
Fayad
Debiao
D
Li
D000328:Adult; D001769:Blood; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008280:Magnetics; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values