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DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-820830
Fast and Ultra Fast MR-Sialography: Comparison of 1.5 T and 3 T
Purpose: Fast clinical protocols are the backbone of today? s clinical routine. Therefore, we developed a program of 3 fast and ultra fast 3D True Fisp/Balanced FFE and single-shot TSE sequences for the detection of the regular ductal system of the parotid gland and compared the results of 1.5 T and 3 T.
Method and materials: 10 healthy volunteers were examined by using 3D Turbo-Spin-Echo (TSE) with fatsaturation (FS) and 2D single? shot (ss)- TSE with inversion recovery (IR) preparation with and without iPAT (integrated parallel acquisition technique; self calibrating GRAPPA) on a 1.5T Magnetom Symphony (Siemens AG, Erlangen, Germany). We used the standard CP neck array coil; only the CP element N1 was selected, except for the iPAT SS-TSE measurement, where the lower element of the head coil was selected, to form an iPAT array. Except for the parallel acquisition technique the same sequences were performed on a 3 T machine (Intera, Philips Medical Systems, Best, The Netherlands) with a standard head coil. All images were evaluated according there quality from one to five by two radiologists in consensus. The visible ducts were divided in parotid intercalated ducts, and a proximal and distal main parotid duct (Stensen's duct).
Results: The proximal and distal Stensen's ducts were visible at 1.5 T with and without parallel acquisition technique (1.8, 1.7 respectively) and at 3 T (1.6) with no statistically significant differences (p>0.05). In both modalities no artifacts were observed due to dental implants. The visibility of the intercalated ducts in healthy volunteers was significant better at 3 T (1.8) compared to 1.5 T (3.7, 4.3 respectively, p<0.05).
Conclusion: Even with a less optimal coil setting 3 T offers a significant better detection of parotid intercalated ducts in healthy volunteers compared to 1.5 T.