Breath
-hold magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is now replacing many non-breath-hold pulse sequences in the upper abdomen because of faster imaging times and improved image quality. The authors compared non-breath-hold cine phasecontraat (PC) and breathhold 2D phase-contrast (2DpC) magnetic remnance (MR) angiograms of the main portal vein (MPV) and superior mesenteric artery (SMA) in 12 volunteers. All angiograms were graded in overall image quality, vessel conspicuity, and signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). In the lldw MR angiograms, the breath-hold 2DPC sequence produced better imager than the non-breath-hold cine PC sequence os graded by overall image quality (P = .016) and SNR (P = .004). Conversely, in the SMA MR angiograms. the non-breath-hold cine PC sequence produced better images than the breath-hold sequence in terms of overall image quality (P = .008) and SNR (P = .008). By reducing the most significaat cause of image artifacts, (ie. using a breath-hold 2DPC sequence to decrease respiratory misregistration of the MPV, and using a cardiac-gated cine pC sequence to minimize pulsatile artifacts of the SMA), one can clearly optimize the quality of M R angiography. Index tern: MR angiography * Portal vein * Superior mesenteric artery * 2D phase-contrast -Cine phase-contrast