CONTRAST-ENHANCED MR ANGIOGRAPHY

Methods, limitations and possibilities

Kouwenhoven, M.

Philips Medical Systems, MR Clinical Science, Best, The Netherlands.

Correspondence: Marc Kouwenhoven, Philips Medical Systems, MR Clinical Science, Veenpluis 4-6, PO Box 10.000, NL-5680 DA Best, The Netherlands. FAX +31-40-276 34 59. E-mail: [email protected]

Acta Radiologica, Supplementum 38:p 57-67, 1997.

Whereas conventional MRA relies on enhanced blood signal from flow-induced magnitude and/or phase effects, gadolinium-enhanced MRA relies mainly on the enhanced blood signal caused by the reduced relaxation time T1. This has a large impact on the imaging technique used, as well as on the imaging volume orientation and the total scanning time. In general, gadolinium-enhanced MRA is faster, with fewer artifacts than MRA without contrast agents.