First-pass and steady-state MR angiography of thoracic vasculature in children and adolescents.
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.
Naehle
Claas P
CP
Department of Radiology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Kaestner
Michael
M
Müller
Andreas
A
Willinek
Winfried W
WW
Gieseke
Juergen
J
Schild
Hans H
HH
Thomas
Daniel
D
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
D003287:Contrast Media; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D005682:Gadolinium; C109932:gadofosveset trisodium