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Submillimeter isotropic resolution carotid wall MRI with swallowing compensation: Imaging results and semiautomated wall morphometry
Author(s) -
Koktzoglou Ioannis,
Li Debiao
Publication year - 2007
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.20849
Subject(s) - steady state free precession imaging , medicine , nuclear medicine , lumen (anatomy) , carotid arteries , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology , surgery
Purpose To assess a swallowing‐compensated, three‐dimensional (3D) diffusion‐prepared segmented steady‐state free precession (3D Nav‐D‐SSFP) technique for carotid wall MRI with 0.6‐mm isotropic spatial resolution, and its utility for semiautomated carotid wall morphometry. Materials and Methods The carotid arteries of seven healthy volunteers ( N = 14) were imaged with 3D Nav‐D‐SSFP and black‐blood T2‐weighted (T2w) two‐dimensional (2D) fast spin‐echo (FSE). Carotid wall‐lumen contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR) was measured with both sequences. Measurement of carotid wall area (WA) and lumen area (LA) made in a semiautomated manner off of the 3D Nav‐D‐SSFP images were compared to those made manually. Results Adjusted for voxel volume and number of slices, a near six‐fold improvement in CNR per unit time was achieved with 3D Nav‐D‐SSFP relative to 2D T2w FSE ( P < 0.001). Manual and semiautomated measurements of carotid WA and LA on the 3D Nav‐D‐SSFP images were highly correlated (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.961 and 0.996, respectively; P < 0.001). Conclusion 3D Nav‐D‐SSFP is a time‐efficient, swallowing‐compensated, black‐blood technique that lends itself for semiautomated measurements of carotid WA and LA that are in good agreement with manual measurements. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.