Free-breathing black-blood CINE fast-spin echo imaging for measuring abdominal aortic wall distensibility: a feasibility study.
The paper reports a free-breathing black-blood CINE fast-spin echo (FSE) technique for measuring abdominal aortic wall motion. The free-breathing CINE FSE includes the following MR techniques: (1) variable-density sampling with fast iterative reconstruction; (2) inner-volume imaging; and (3) a blood-suppression preparation pulse. The proposed technique was evaluated in eight healthy subjects. The inner-volume imaging significantly reduced the intraluminal artifacts of respiratory motion (p  =  0.015). The quantitative measurements were a diameter of 16.3  ±  2.8 mm and wall distensibility of 2.0  ±  0.4 mm (12.5  ±  3.4%) and 0.7  ±  0.3 mm (4.1  ±  1.0%) for the anterior and posterior walls, respectively. The cyclic cross-sectional distensibility was 35  ±  15% greater in the systolic phase than in the diastolic phase. In conclusion, we developed a feasible CINE FSE method to measure the motion of the abdominal aortic wall, which will enable clinical scientists to study the elasticity of the abdominal aorta.
Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, United Kingdom. Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Jyh-Miin
JM
Lin
Andrew J
AJ
Patterson
Tzu-Cheng
TC
Chao
Chengcheng
C
Zhu
Hing-Chiu
HC
Chang
Jason
J
Mendes
Hsiao-Wen
HW
Chung
Jonathan H
JH
Gillard
Martin J
MJ
Graves
D000328:Adult; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D016477:Artifacts; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D012119:Respiration