Increased volume of coverage for abdominal contrast-enhanced MR angiography with two-dimensional autocalibrating parallel imaging: initial experience at 3.0 Tesla.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the feasibility and the quality of abdominal three-dimensional (3D) contrast enhanced MR angiograms acquired at 3.0 Tesla (T) using a new 2D-accelerated autocalibrating parallel reconstruction method for Cartesian sampling (2D-ARC).


METHODS
With institutional review board approval and written informed consent, a prospective trial in 6 normal healthy volunteers and 23 patients referred for evaluation of suspected renovascular disease was performed. The volunteers underwent abdominal MRA with and without 2D-ARC acceleration. Images were evaluated independently by two blinded vascular radiologists in randomized order. Vessel conspicuity was rated on a five-point scale. Evaluation for significant differences between the scores for each technique was performed using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test.


RESULTS
In the series of six volunteers, no statistical significance was found between the image quality scores for 2D-ARC accelerated and nonaccelerated exams. A high proportion of the 23 clinical 2D-ARC exams were graded as diagnostic (vessel conspicuity score >or=2; Reader 1, 96%; Reader 2, 100%) for overall image quality.


CONCLUSIONS
Subjective image quality of 2D-ARC accelerated MRA was equivalent to the conventional MRA method. However, the 2D-ARC accelerated sequence provided a 3.5-fold increase in imaging volume, complete abdominal coverage, and a 30% reduction in voxel volume, all within the same acquisition time.
Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin 53792, USA.
Darren P
DP
Lum
Reed F
RF
Busse
Christopher J
CJ
Francois
Anja C
AC
Brau
Philip J
PJ
Beatty
Joshua
J
Huff
Jean H
JH
Brittain
Scott B
SB
Reeder
D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000473:pathology; D002138:Calibration; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D005682:Gadolinium / Q000494:pharmacology; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009942:Organometallic Compounds / Q000494:pharmacology
D003287:Contrast Media; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D005682:Gadolinium; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; C109932:gadofosveset trisodium