Bilateral ce-MR angiography of the hands at 3.0 T and 1.5 T: intraindividual comparison of quantitative and qualitative image parameters in healthy volunteers

The purpose of this study was to determine the benefit of bilateral contrast-enhanced MR angiography (ce-MRA) of the hands at 3.0 Tesla (T) compared with an established 1.5-T technique in healthy volunteers. Intraindividual bilateral ce-MRA of the hands was performed at 1.5 T and 3.0 T in 14 healthy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European radiology 2008-04, Vol.18 (4), p.658-664
Main Authors: Winterer, Jan Thorsten, Moske-Eick, Olaf, Markl, Michael, Frydrychowicz, Alexander, Bley, Thorsten Alexander, Langer, Mathias
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Contrast Media
Diagnostic Radiology
Female
Hand - blood supply
Humans
Imaging
Internal Medicine
Interventional Radiology
Magnetic Resonance Angiography - methods
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Neuroradiology
Radiology
Statistics, Nonparametric
Ultrasound
Vascular-Interventional
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Summary:The purpose of this study was to determine the benefit of bilateral contrast-enhanced MR angiography (ce-MRA) of the hands at 3.0 Tesla (T) compared with an established 1.5-T technique in healthy volunteers. Intraindividual bilateral ce-MRA of the hands was performed at 1.5 T and 3.0 T in 14 healthy volunteers using a timed ultra-fast GRE sequence featuring parallel acquisition. The evaluation comprised measurement of the vessel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), rating of the image quality and the assessment of artefacts and venous contamination. At 3.0 T, SNR improved up to 95% and CNR up to 129%. The image quality of the larger inflow arteries, the palm arches and common digital arteries was good or sufficient at either magnetic field strengths. However, 3.0-T MRA was clearly superior in the depiction of the digital arteries. Ce-MRA of the hand clearly profits from the use of 3.0 T. Compared with 1.5 T, a substantial increase of CNR is found resulting in a significantly better delineation of the small digital arteries. Saturation affects more the SNR of the perivascular tissue than the contrast-enhanced blood, and thus leads to a marked increase of CNR at 3.0.
ISSN:0938-7994
1432-1084
DOI:10.1007/s00330-007-0800-1