Non‐contrast‐enhanced four‐dimensional (4D) intracranial MR angiography: A feasibility study

T1‐shortening contrast agents have been widely used in time‐resolved magnetic resonance angiography. To match imaging data acquisition with the short time period of the first pass of contrast agent, temporal resolution and/or spatial resolution have to be compromised in many cases. In this study, a novel non‐contrast‐enhanced technique was developed for time‐resolved magnetic resonance angiography. Alternating magnetization preparation was applied in two consecutive acquisitions of each measurement to eliminate the need for contrast media. Without the constraint of contrast media kinetics, temporal resolution is drastically improved from the order of a second as in conventional contrast‐enhanced approach to tens of milliseconds (50.9 msec) in this study, without compromising spatial resolution. Initial results from volunteer studies demonstrate the feasibility of this method to depict anatomic structure and dynamic filling of main vessels in the head. Magn Reson Med 63:835–841, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

[1]  J. Pauly,et al.  MR angiography by selective inversion recovery , 1987, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[2]  R Frayne,et al.  Time‐resolved contrast‐enhanced 3D MR angiography , 1996, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[3]  M. Heller,et al.  Cardiac-gated two-dimensional phase-contrast MR angiography of lower extremity occlusive disease. , 1997, AJR. American journal of roentgenology.

[4]  Robin M Heidemann,et al.  Generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions (GRAPPA) , 2002, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[5]  W. Yuh,et al.  Cerebral arteriovenous malformations: morphologic evaluation by ultrashort 3D gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography , 2002, European Radiology.

[6]  P. Boesiger,et al.  SENSE: Sensitivity encoding for fast MRI , 1999, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[7]  D C Harrison,et al.  Dynamic gadolinium‐enhanced three‐dimensional abdominal MR arteriography , 1993, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[8]  G. B. Pike,et al.  Quantitative imaging of magnetization transfer exchange and relaxation properties in vivo using MRI , 2001, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[9]  R R Edelman,et al.  Signal targeting with alternating radiofrequency (STAR) sequences: Application to MR angiography , 1994, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[10]  J. Ross,et al.  Carotid‐CNS MR flow imaging , 1990, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[11]  J. V. Engelshoven,et al.  Peripheral arterial disease: meta-analysis of the diagnostic performance of MR angiography. , 2000, Radiology.

[12]  G. Laub.  Time-of-flight method of MR angiography. , 1995, Magnetic resonance imaging clinics of North America.

[13]  Richard Frayne,et al.  3D Time‐resolved contrast‐enhanced MR DSA: Advantages and tradeoffs , 1998, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[14]  Lone Skov,et al.  Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis: suspected causative role of gadodiamide used for contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. , 2006, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN.

[15]  Savvas Andronikou,et al.  Comparison of MR angiography and conventional angiography in the investigation of intracranial arteriovenous malformations and aneurysms in children , 2003, Pediatric Radiology.

[16]  James C Carr,et al.  Thorax: low-dose contrast-enhanced three-dimensional MR angiography with subsecond temporal resolution--initial results. , 2002, Radiology.

[17]  Yu-Chung N. Cheng,et al.  Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Physical Principles and Sequence Design , 1999 .

[18]  D. S. Williams,et al.  Magnetic resonance imaging of perfusion using spin inversion of arterial water. , 1992, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[19]  M. Miyazaki,et al.  Peripheral MR angiography: separation of arteries from veins with flow-spoiled gradient pulses in electrocardiography-triggered three-dimensional half-Fourier fast spin-echo imaging. , 2003, Radiology.

[20]  Horst Urbach,et al.  Cerebral arteriovenous malformation: Spetzler-Martin classification at subsecond-temporal-resolution four-dimensional MR angiography compared with that at DSA. , 2008, Radiology.