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MR venography of the human brain using susceptibility weighted imaging at very high field strength

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Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

We investigate the implications of high magnetic field strength on MR venography based on susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) and estimate the optimum echo time to obtain maximum contrast between blood and brain tissue.

Materials and methods

We measured tissue contrast and T *2 relaxation times at 7 T of gray matter, white matter, and venous blood in vivo.

Results

T *2 relaxation times of gray matter, white matter, and venous blood in vivo yielded 32.9 ± 2.3, 27.7 ± 4.3, and 7.4 ± 1.4 ms, respectively. Optimum TE was found to be 15 ms which is supported by theoretical considerations. Using this optimum TE, we acquired 3D high resolution datasets with a large volume coverage in a short measurement time that show very detailed microanatomical structures of the human brain such as intracortical veins and laminar cortical substructures.

Conclusions

By applying optimised vessel filters (vesselness filter and vessel enhancing diffusion) whole brain MR venograms can be obtained at 7 T with a significantly reduced measurement time compared to 3 T.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9101, Nijmegen, 6500 HB, The Netherlands

    Peter J. Koopmans & Markus Barth

  2. Department of Medical Informatics and Radiology, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Rashindra Manniesing & Wiro J. Niessen

  3. Image Sciences Institute, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Max A. Viergever

  4. Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

    Markus Barth

Authors
  1. Peter J. Koopmans
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  2. Rashindra Manniesing
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  3. Wiro J. Niessen
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  4. Max A. Viergever
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  5. Markus Barth
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Markus Barth.

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Koopmans, P.J., Manniesing, R., Niessen, W.J. et al. MR venography of the human brain using susceptibility weighted imaging at very high field strength. Magn Reson Mater Phy 21, 149 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-007-0101-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-007-0101-3

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