Magnetic resonance flow measurements in real time: Comparison with a standard gradient-echo technique

✍ Scribed by Christoph Klein; Simon Schalla; Bernhard Schnackenburg; Axel Bornstedt; Eckart Fleck; Eike Nagel

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 117 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1053-1807
• DOI: 10.1002/jmri.1187

✦ Synopsis

Ultrafast gradient systems and hybrid imaging sequences offer the opportunity to acquire phase contrast flow data in real time. In a 1.5-Tesla magnetic resonance (MR)-tomograph, peak velocity and volume flow were assessed in 36 large vessels (aorta) and 33 medium-sized vessels (carotid and iliac artery) using a real-time (segmented k-space turbo gradient-echo planar imaging sequence) in comparison with a gradient-echo technique. With the real-time technique, the matrix was reduced from 116 to 64, and temporal resolution changed from 30 msec to 124 msec. Measurements of peak velocity correlated in large (r = 0.88) and medium-sized vessels (r = 0.81). Volume flow measurements correlated in large vessels (r = 0.87), however, a poor correlation (r = 0.64) was found in medium-sized vessels. Thus, scan time can be significantly reduced and images acquired without electrocardiogram (ECG)-triggering. Flow volume can only be determined in large vessels with sufficient accuracy, mainly due to reduced spatial resolution in smaller vessels.