Susceptibility-based MR Imaging of Nitinol Stent*

Conventional MR techniques have difficulty to accurately localize the stent position and access the stent restenosis because of the effects of susceptibility and radiofrequency (RF) shielding artifacts caused by stent mesh. Previous studies have demonstrated that a susceptibility-based positive contrast MR method exhibits excellent efficacy for visualizing MR compatible metal devices by taking advantage of their high magnetic susceptibility. However, the method is not evaluated in the visualization of stents. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to prospectively assess whether the susceptibility-based positive contrast method can be used to visualize the nitinol stents, with the comparison of two typical MR positive contrast techniques, i.e., susceptibility gradient mapping using the original resolution (SUMO) and the gradient echo acquisition for super-paramagnetic particles with positive contrast (GRASP). The experiment results showed that the susceptibility-based method provided better visualization and more precise localization of the stent than SUMO and GRASP.