title: Intracranial arterial wall imaging using three-dimensional high isotropic resolution black blood MRI at 3.0 Tesla.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a high isotropic-resolution sequence to evaluate intracranial vessels at 3.0 Tesla (T).
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirteen healthy volunteers and 4 patients with intracranial stenosis were imaged at 3.0T using 0.5-mm isotropic-resolution three-dimensional (3D) Volumetric ISotropic TSE Acquisition (VISTA; TSE, turbo spin echo), with conventional 2D-TSE for comparison. VISTA was repeated for 6 volunteers and 4 patients at 0.4-mm isotropic-resolution to explore the trade-off between SNR and voxel volume. Wall signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR(wall) ), wall-lumen contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR(wall-lumen) ), lumen area (LA), wall area (WA), mean wall thickness (MWT), and maximum wall thickness (maxWT) were compared between 3D-VISTA and 2D-TSE sequences, as well as 3D images acquired at both resolutions. Reliability was assessed by intraclass correlations (ICC).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with 2D-TSE measurements, 3D-VISTA provided 58% and 74% improvement in SNR(wall) and CNR(wall-lumen) , respectively. LA, WA, MWT and maxWT from 3D and 2D techniques highly correlated (ICCs of 0.96, 0.95, 0.96, and 0.91, respectively). CNR(wall-lumen) using 0.4-mm resolution VISTA decreased by 27%, compared with 0.5-mm VISTA but with reduced partial-volume-based overestimation of wall thickness. Reliability for 3D measurements was good to excellent.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The 3D-VISTA provides SNR-efficient, highly reliable measurements of intracranial vessels at high isotropic-resolution, enabling broad coverage in a clinically acceptable time.
authors.affiliation: The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Steinman
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Etesami
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schär
authors.forename: Brad C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Astor
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Wasserman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001158:Arteries / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020521:Stroke / Q000473:pathology