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AJNR - American Journal of Neuroradiology

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American Journal of Neuroradiology 21:381-385 (2 2000)
© 2000 American Society of Neuroradiology

ARTICLE

Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MR Angiography and MR Imaging of the Carotid Artery: High-Resolution Sequences in Different Acquisition Planes

Shigeki Aoki^,a, Hiroto Nakajima^a, Hiroshi Kumagai^a and Tsutomu Araki^a

^a From the Department of Radiology, Yamanashi Medical University, 1110 Shimokato, Tamaho-cho, Nakakoma-gun, Yamanashi, 409-3898, Japan.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: First-pass contrast-enhanced MR angiography has become the technique of choice for studying the carotid bifurcation, but this method has some limitations. We evaluated the clinical utility of performing 3D contrast-enhanced MR angiography in the axial plane immediately after performing angiography in the coronal plane.

METHODS: Cervical carotid arteries of 80 consecutive patients were studied on a 1.5-T MR imager with phased-array coils. Coronal 3D MR angiography was performed after administering a bolus injection of contrast material (20 mL) with automatic triggering. This was immediately followed by an axial acquisition. We measured carotid diameters on the contrast-enhanced MR angiograms as well as on intra-arterial digital subtraction angiograms according to established criteria. We also evaluated original source MR angiograms.

RESULTS: Angiograms obtained in the axial plane correlated better with the intra-arterial digital subtraction angiograms than did the coronal angiograms. When first-pass contrast-enhanced MR angiography was incomplete because of a failure of triggering, the second-phase acquisition provided sufficient image quality. Original source images suffered from ring artifacts, low axial resolution, and a low level of soft-tissue visualization. Axial-based source images showed flow-independent contrast filling to the patent lumen with sufficient visualization of plaque morphology, thickened arterial wall, and surrounding disease processes, such as tumors.

CONCLUSION: With the addition of a 1-minute second-phase 3D acquisition in a different plane immediately after first-pass contrast-enhanced MR angiography, one can obtain a more accurate depiction of the carotid bifurcation, insurance against failure of triggering, and diagnostic source images.

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