Thick-section, single breath-hold magnetic resonance pulmonary angiography. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Approaches to performing magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) of the pulmonary vasculature are described using very fast (repetition time [TR] less than 13 mseconds) radiofrequency (rf)-spoiled, gradient-recalled pulse sequences and the standard quadrature body imaging coil of a commercial 1.5-T MR imaging system. METHODS AND RESULTS: Signal-to-noise (SNR) is improved by signal averaging (Nex greater than or equal to 4) in a two-dimensional, single thick-section approach and by volume acquisition (Nex = 1) in a three-dimensional approach. Blood signal loss is minimized by using short, asymmetric echoes (echo time [TE] less than or equal to 2.7 mseconds). Respiratory motion is eliminated by keeping the scan time short enough (approximately 15 seconds) for image acquisition within a single breath-hold. Cardiac motion artifacts are reduced with section orientations that avoid intersecting the heart and/or use of small flip angle (alpha less than or equal to 25 degrees). CONCLUSIONS: Images of healthy volunteers showed that while single thick sections have superior SNR, the three-dimensional approach appears to produce better visualization of the peripheral vascular segments and offers improved ability to process the images to remove overlapping structures.

publication date

  • April 1, 1992

Research

keywords

  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Pulmonary Artery
  • Pulmonary Veins

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0026569004

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1097/00004424-199204000-00014

PubMed ID

  • 1601624

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 27

issue

  • 4