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The effect of injection rate on time‐resolved contrast‐enhanced peripheral MRA
Author(s) -
Carroll Timothy J.,
Korosec Frank R.,
Swan J. Shan,
Hany Thomas F.,
Grist Thomas M.,
Mistretta Charles A.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.1200
Subject(s) - contrast (vision) , peripheral , medicine , bolus (digestion) , dynamic contrast , magnetic resonance angiography , magnetic resonance imaging , ringing , nuclear medicine , angiography , radiology , meglumine , surgery , filter (signal processing) , artificial intelligence , computer science , computer vision
In contrast‐enhanced (CE) magnetic resonance (MR) angiography (MRA), lower injection rates of a fixed contrast agent dose provide longer contrast agent bolus at the expense of lower intravascular signal. This study evaluated the effect of different injection rates in imaging of the vasculature of the lower extremities with time‐resolved, CE MRA. In three volunteers, injection rates of 0.5, 1.5 and 3.0 mL/second were administered in a randomized order and imaged in two separate sessions. Contrast agent bolus dynamics measured in volunteers were used in computer simulations to confirm variations in contrast agent concentration as a source of vessel ringing and blurring artifacts. To validate the effect of injection rate in pathologic vessels, 37 patients with peripheral vascular disease were imaged with a time‐resolved technique using an injection rate of 0.5 mL/second or 1.5 mL/second and retrospectively divided into two groups. In volunteers, higher injection rates caused a stronger modulation of k ‐space and resulted in increased ringing artifacts in time‐resolved CE MRA. These results were reproduced with computer simulations. In the qualitative patient study, significantly less vessel blurring was observed using a lower injection‐rate, without a significant loss of vessel contrast. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2001;14:401–410. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.