Original Article—Vascular/Cardiac MRI

Feasibility of Gadofosveset-Enhanced Steady-State Magnetic Resonance Angiography of the Peripheral Vessels at 3 Tesla With Dixon Fat Saturation

Michaely, Henrik J. MD^*†; Attenberger, Ulrike I. MD^†; Dietrich, Olaf PhD^‡; Schmitt, Peter PhD^§; Nael, Kambiz MD^¶; Kramer, Harald MD^†; Reiser, Maximilian F. MD^†; Schoenberg, Stefan O. MD^*†; Walz, Michael MD^*

Author Information

From the *Institute of Clinical Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany; †Institute of Clinical Radiology and ‡Josef Lissner Laboratory for Biomedical Imaging, University of Munich, Grosshadern Campus, Munich, Germany; §Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany; and ¶Department of Cardiovascular Radiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, California.

Received January 11, 2008, and accepted for publication, after revision, March 5, 2008.

Henrik J. Michaely and Ulrike I. Attenberger contributed equally to this study.

Reprints: Henrik J. Michaely, MD, Institute of Clinical Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim—University of Heidelberg, Theodor-Kutzer-Ufer 1–3, 68167 Mannheim, Germany. E-mail: [email protected].

Investigative Radiology 43(9):p 635-641, September 2008. | DOI: 10.1097/RLI.0b013e31817ee53a

Abstract

Introduction:

To investigate the feasibility and image quality of gadofosveset-enhanced steady-state peripheral MR-angiography using Dixon fat saturation in comparison to spectral fat saturation.

Materials and Methods:

After Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, 10 healthy volunteers underwent peripheral MR-angiography at 3.0 T during the steady state 50 minutes after gadofosveset injection. A steady-state-adapted volume interpolated breathhold examination sequence with an isotropic spatial resolution of 1 mm was acquired with 2-point Dixon fat saturation (DixFS, acquisition time 52 seconds) and with conventional, spectral fat saturation (SFS, acquisition time 58 seconds). The quality of the images was rated on an ordinal 4-point scale (4, very good) by 2 radiologists in consensus. The signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the vessels, the fat, and the muscles as well as the contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR) between vessels, fat, and muscle were determined. Paired P tests were performed for statistical analysis with a significance level of P < 0.05.

Results:

Diagnostic image quality was achieved in all examinations. The image quality of the DixFS images was rated superior (median 4) over the SFS images (median 3; P= 0.03). The SNR of muscles and vessels was 40% higher with DixFS (P < 0.008), whereas the SNR of fat was decreased by 40.3% from 40.7 with SFS to 22.4 with DixFS (P < 0.0001). The CNR (fat/muscle) of the DixFS images of 84.1/71.7 was significantly higher than the CNR of the SFS images of 47.7/47.4 (P < 0.001).

Discussion:

Two-point Dixon fat suppression for MR-angiography during the steady state after the administration of gadofosveset is feasible with superior image quality and more than 50% increase in CNR (fat/muscle) compared with spectral fat saturation without an additional time penalty.

Article Keywords

Keywords
magnetic resonance angiography, 3 Tesla, peripheral arteries, Dixon fat saturation, intravascular contrast agent, gadofosveset, steady state

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Feasibility of Gadofosveset-Enhanced Steady-State Magnetic Resonance Angiography of the Peripheral Vessels at 3 Tesla With Dixon Fat Saturation