title: Surrogate arterial phase imaging using a long duration (≈1.5 min) radial acquisition T1-weighted sequence: an alternative in patients unable to breath-hold.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pediatric and adult patients unable to suspend respiration generally undergo magnetic resonance (MR) examinations that lack arterial phase imaging, which is a phase that provides substantial information on disease processes. An MR strategy that provides this type of information may be of considerable value.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe and assess the feasibility and enhancement quality of early-phase imaging utilizing long-duration radial 3D-GRE imaging by initiating the sequence prior to starting contrast injection.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-three consecutive patients (10 men, 23 women; 50.7 ± 25.5 years) underwent free-breathing gadolinium-enhanced radial 3D-GRE, with sequence initiation 30 s prior to contrast injection. Late hepatic arterial (LHA) phase was chosen for comparison. Images were evaluated for enhancement and overall image quality. Organ enhancement was calculated. Sub-group analysis was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-two examinations of radial 3D-GRE sequences were acquired during the LHA phase. Organ enhancement scores were of satisfactory to good quality (range, 3.32-3.82). There was a significant trend of superior overall enhancement quality scores in pediatrics and examinations performed at 3 T (P = 0.0225 and 0.0001, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Arterial phase abdominal MR imaging is feasible using conventional radial 3D-GRE by adopting this simplistic proposed approach, which may allow arterial-phase imaging in patients unable to breath-hold.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Department of Radiology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mamdoh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: AlObaidy
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramalho
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Kiran Kr
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Busireddy
authors.affiliation: Siemens Medical Solutions, Inc., Morrisville, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Brian M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Dale
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Ersan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Altun
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Baodong
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA richsem@med.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Richard C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Semelka
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D062485:Breath Holding; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003287:Contrast Media; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media
keywords: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); abdomen; arterial imaging; free-breathing; radial 3D-GRE; uncooperative patients