title: Peripheral contrast-enhanced MR angiography at 3.0T, improved spatial resolution and low dose contrast: initial clinical experience.
abstract: To investigate a high spatial resolution peripheral contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) protocol, applying a dedicated multi-channel array coil and accelerated parallel acquisition at 3.0T in evaluation of patients with peripheral vascular disease. Twenty patients with peripheral vascular disease underwent multi-station high spatial resolution peripheral CE-MRA at 3T. The image quality, presence of venous contamination, image noise, and artifact were evaluated by 2 radiologists independently. Assessment of arterial disease for 540 arterial segments was performed, and findings were correlated with conventional catheter angiography in 10 patients. All studies were yielded high diagnostic image quality. Venous contamination and artifact were minimal and never interfered with diagnosis. Sixty seven arterial segments with significant stenoses (>0%) were detected by observers with excellent interobserver agreement (kappa = 0.82; 95% CI: 0.76, 0.88). There was a significant correlation between CE-MRA and conventional angiography (Rs = 0.91 and 0.94 for reader 1 and 2, respectively) for the assessment of the degree of stenosis. Higher available SNR at 3T in combination with multi-coil technology and accelerated parallel acquisition, result in acquisition of nearly isotropic submillimeter 3D voxels throughout the entire peripheral arterial tree with diagnostic image quality and favorable comparative analysis with catheter angiography.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiological Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles, 10945 Le Conte Avenue, Suite # 3371, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7206, USA. nkambiz@mednet.ucla.edu
authors.forename: Kambiz
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nael
authors.forename: Mayil
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krishnam
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nael
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ton
authors.forename: Stefan G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Ruehm
authors.forename: J Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Finn
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D016491:Peripheral Vascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA