Bilateral ce-MR angiography of the hands at 3.0 T and 1.5 T: intraindividual comparison of quantitative and qualitative image parameters in healthy volunteers.
The purpose of this study was to determine the benefit of bilateral contrast-enhanced MR angiography (ce-MRA) of the hands at 3.0 Tesla (T) compared with an established 1.5-T technique in healthy volunteers. Intraindividual bilateral ce-MRA of the hands was performed at 1.5 T and 3.0 T in 14 healthy volunteers using a timed ultra-fast GRE sequence featuring parallel acquisition. The evaluation comprised measurement of the vessel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), rating of the image quality and the assessment of artefacts and venous contamination. At 3.0 T, SNR improved up to 95% and CNR up to 129%. The image quality of the larger inflow arteries, the palm arches and common digital arteries was good or sufficient at either magnetic field strengths. However, 3.0-T MRA was clearly superior in the depiction of the digital arteries. Ce-MRA of the hand clearly profits from the use of 3.0 T. Compared with 1.5 T, a substantial increase of CNR is found resulting in a significantly better delineation of the small digital arteries. Saturation affects more the SNR of the perivascular tissue than the contrast-enhanced blood, and thus leads to a marked increase of CNR at 3.0.
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, University of Freiburg, Hugstetter Str. 55, 79106, Freiburg, Germany. jan.winterer@uniklinik-freiburg.de
Jan Thorsten
JT
Winterer
Olaf
O
Moske-Eick
Michael
M
Markl
Alexander
A
Frydrychowicz
Thorsten Alexander
TA
Bley
Mathias
M
Langer
D000328:Adult; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000098:blood supply*; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D003287:Contrast Media