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DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1124052
Continuous Table Movement for Peripheral MRA with Matrix Coils at 3.0T – Initial Experience
Purpose: To compare a standard step-by-step and a newly developed continuous table movement (ct) technique for peripheral MRA at 3.0 Tesla.
Materials and Methods: We included 14 consecutive patients referred for peripheral MRA with clinical symptoms of peripheral arterial occlusive disease. All of them underwent both step-by-step MRA and ct-MRA in one session. No patients with impaired renal function were enrolled in the trial. All exams were performed on a 3T MR-System. Maximal contrast agent (CA) volume was 31.5ml (1.5ml test bolus, 15ml/MRA technique). Spatial resolution of the ct-MRA datasets was technically limited to 1.2mm3, step-by-step MRA reached between 1.4×1.1×1.2mm3 and 0.9×0.9×0.9mm3. First ct-MRA datasets were read on a segment-by-segment basis and findings thereafter correlated with the step-by-step MRA datasets. Overall image quality, CA timing and occurrence of artefacts and venous contamination were rated on a three point scale.
Results: All datasets could be evaluated, nearly 60% of all ct-MRA cases showed an overall excellent image quality. 47.5% of all vessel segments exhibited arteriosclerotic changes, 5% stenoses and 18.3% occlusions in the ct-MRA datasets compared to 62.5% arteriosclerotic changes, 4.2% stenoses and 17.5% occlusions in the step-by-step MRA datasets. In 13 segments pathologic changes were underestimated and in only 4 cases overestimated.
Conclusion: MRA with continuous table movement is an easy to perform technique which contributes to a substantial reduction in examination time. However, the slightly reduced spatial resolution compared to standard step-by-step MRA is a drawback resulting in an under- or overestimation of pathologic changes.