title: First-pass and steady-state MR angiography of thoracic vasculature in children and adolescents.
abstract: Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is an established noninvasive imaging modality for detection and evaluation of vascular pathologies in children with congenital heart disease. Standard first-pass (FP)-MRA uses a 3-dimensional MRA sequence with an extracellular contrast agent, in which spatial resolution is limited by breath-hold duration, and image quality (IQ) is limited by motion artifacts. The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic confidence, IQ, and image artifacts of standard FP-MRA to a high-resolution, motion compensated steady-state (SS)-MRA of the thoracic vasculature in children and adolescents with congenital heart disease using a blood-pool contrast agent (gadofosveset trisodium). SS-MRA of the thoracic vasculature (technically successful in 90% of patients) offers superior diagnostic confidence and IQ compared with FP-MRA and shows fewer motion-related image artifacts. In addition, SS-MRA revealed findings missed by FP-MRA. Therefore, SS-MRA may prove specifically beneficial for imaging of thoracic vessels that are small and/or subject to motion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Claas P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Naehle
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaestner
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Winfried W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Willinek
authors.forename: Juergen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gieseke
authors.forename: Hans H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Schild
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001011:Aorta / Q000473:pathology; D016477:Artifacts; D002648:Child; D003287:Contrast Media; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D005682:Gadolinium; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine; D008297:Male; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000473:pathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D005682:Gadolinium; C109932:gadofosveset trisodium