Authors: Tomas Hansen Johan Wikström MatsOla Eriksson Anders Lundberg Lars Johansson Christer Ljungman Romhild Hoogeven Håkan Ahlström
Publish Date: 2005/05/14
Volume: 16, Issue: 1, Pages: 147-153
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the technique of wholebody magnetic resonance angiography MRA of patients with a standard clinical scanner Thirtythree patients referred for stenoses occlusions aneurysms assessment of patency of vascular grafts vasculitis and vascular aplasia were examined in a 15T scanner using its standard body coil Threedimensional sequences were acquired in four stations after administration of one intravenous injection of 40 ml conventional gadolinium contrast agent Different vessel segments were evaluated as either diagnostic or nondiagnostic and regarding the presence of stenoses with more than 50 diameter reduction occlusions or aneurysms Of 923 vessel segments 67 were not evaluable because of poor contrast filling n=31 motion artefacts n=20 venous overlap n=12 and other reasons n=4 Stenoses of more than 50 occlusions or aneurysms were observed in 26 patients 129 segments In nine patients additional unsuspected pathology was found In 10 out of 14 patients 71/79 segments there was conformity between MRA and digital subtraction angiography regarding the grade of stenosis This study shows that wholebody MRA with a standard clinical scanner is feasible Motion artefacts and the timing of the contrast agent through the different segments are still problems to be solved
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