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Effective use of flow‐spoiled FBI and time‐SLIP methods in the diagnostic study of an aberrant vessel of the head and neck: “Left jugular venous steal by the right jugular vein”
Author(s) -
Kogure Taroh,
Kogure Kyuya,
Iizuka Mitsumasa,
Ino Azusa,
Ishii Masako
Publication year - 2010
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.22273
Subject(s) - medicine , jugular vein , radiology , blood flow , internal jugular vein , head and neck , magnetic resonance imaging , magnetic resonance angiography , anatomy , surgery
Three‐dimensional (3D) time‐of‐flight (TOF) is now commonly used in routine magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) studies of the head and neck. However, there are limits to its diagnostic abilities in the clinical field and, in some instances, a more invasive supplementary examination may be required. We incidentally discovered a patient with an aberrant vessel of the head and neck that ran alongside the left carotid artery and contained a constant, slowly pulsating efferent blood flow. 3D‐TOF and carotid ultrasonography could not determine the nature and origin of this vessel. Additional studies using flow‐spoiled fresh blood imaging (flow‐spoiled FBI) and time spatial labeling inversion pulse (time‐SLIP) methods were effective in determining that the vessel was the left jugular vein, and that the continuous venous reflux was a result of a venous steal by the right jugular vein. We show that by combining different MRA techniques we can effectively achieve diagnosis without resorting to more invasive examinations. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010;32:429–433. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.