TY - JOUR
T1 - Bilateral ce-MR angiography of the hands at 3.0 T and 1.5 T
T2 - Intraindividual comparison of quantitative and qualitative image parameters in healthy volunteers
AU - Winterer, Jan Thorsten
AU - Moske-Eick, Olaf
AU - Markl, Michael
AU - Frydrychowicz, Alexander
AU - Bley, Thorsten Alexander
AU - Langer, Mathias
PY - 2008/4/1
Y1 - 2008/4/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=41349090375&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00330-007-0800-1
DO - 10.1007/s00330-007-0800-1
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 18040693
AN - SCOPUS:41349090375
SN - 0938-7994
VL - 18
SP - 658
EP - 664
JO - European Radiology
JF - European Radiology
IS - 4
ER -