Highly accelerated first-pass contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography of the peripheral vasculature: comparison of gadofosveset trisodium with gadopentetate dimeglumine contrast agents.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the blood pool agent gadofosveset trisodium for first-pass, dynamic peripheral contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (pMRA), and compare the results with a conventional gadolinium contrast agent.


METHODS
A total of 16 patients were imaged at 1.5T using a prototype peripheral vascular coil with high SENSE acceleration. Five received gadopentetate dimeglumine ( approximately 0.25 mmol/kg), and 11 received gadofosveset trisodium (five standard-dose 0.03 mmol/kg, six high-dose 0.05 mmol/kg). Quantitative contrast-enhancement and qualitative image quality evaluation was compared between agents and doses.


RESULTS
High-quality diagnostic images were uniformly obtained. The contrast ratio did not significantly differ between gadopentetate dimeglumine and high-dose gadofosveset trisodium, both of which were greater than standard-dose gadofosveset trisodium. High-dose gadofosveset trisodium was equivalent to gadopentetate dimeglumine in image quality and subjective vessel-to-background ratio, but significantly better for depicting small muscular arteries. Standard-dose gadofosveset trisodium showed equivalent image quality and small artery depiction with a slight but significant decrease in vessel-to-background ratio as compared to gadopentatate dimeglumine. Both gadofosveset trisodium doses trended toward more venous enhancement, but this was not a diagnostic problem.


CONCLUSIONS
First-pass peripheral CE-MRA using gadofosveset trisodium is feasible, yielding image quality comparable to double to triple-dose gadopentetate dimeglumine. Increasing the gadofosveset trisodium dose to 0.05 mmol/kg yields further improvements.
Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Puget Sound VAHCS, Seattle, Washington 98108, USA. jmaki@u.washington.edu
Jeffrey H
JH
Maki
Maisie
M
Wang
Gregory J
GJ
Wilson
Matthew G
MG
Shutske
Tim
T
Leiner
D000368:Aged; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; 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*; D016491:Peripheral Vascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology
D003287:Contrast Media; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D005682:Gadolinium; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; C109932:gadofosveset trisodium