title: Compressed sensing based simultaneous black- and gray-blood carotid vessel wall MR imaging.
abstract: In this study, we sought to demonstrate the blood suppression performance, image quality and morphological measurements for compressed sensing (CS) based simultaneous 3D black- and gray-blood imaging sequence (CS-siBLAG) in carotid vessel wall MR imaging.
  
  
  
  Seven healthy volunteers and five patients were recruited. Healthy subjects underwent five CS-siBLAG scans with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5-fold accelerations. Signal-to-tissue ratio (STR) and contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR) were computed as the measures of flowing signal suppression performance and the image quality for black-blood imaging of the technique. Vessel lumen area (LA) and wall area (WA) were compared between fully sampled acquisition and each accelerated acquisition. Patients underwent three CS-siBLAG scans with 1, 3 and 5-fold accelerations as well as a 3D time of flight (3D TOF) scan. Two radiologists reviewed the under-sampled black- and gray-blood image quality.
  
  
  
  STR and CTR values obtained with 2 to 5-fold accelerations were not significantly different from those with full acquisition. LA and WA measured at 2×, 3×, 4× and 5× were all highly correlated to the corresponding values at 1×. For patients imaging, two radiologists both found that the dual-contrast images at 3× acceleration exhibited comparable image quality to that of the fully sampled acquisition, and that the images at 5× exhibited slightly blurred vessel wall and outer vessel wall boundaries.
  
  
  
  By combining the CS under-sampling pattern and reconstruction, pseudo-centric phase encoding order and dual blood contrast sequences, this technique provides spatially registered black- and gray-blood images and excellent visualization for vessel wall imaging and gray-blood imaging in a short scan time.
authors.affiliation: Center Laboratory, The First Hospital of Nanchang City, 330008 Nanchang, PR China; Department of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, 330008 Nanchang, PR China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge, CB2 0QQ Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Hanjing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, 100029 Beijing, PR China. Electronic address: lidongmd@163.com.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, PR China; College of Engineering, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Jue
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, PR China; College of Engineering, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio
keywords: CS-siBLAG; Compressed sensing; Gray-blood imaging; Pseudo-centric phase encoding order; Simultaneous three dimensional dual-contrast imaging; Vessel wall imaging