TRACKING OF CEREBRAL VESSELS IN MR-ANGIOGRAPHY AFTER HIGHPASS FILTERING

Maximum intensity projection (MIP), the commonly used technique for ca lculating MR-angiograms from three-dimensional (3D) datasets, often fa ils to visualize small vessels due to superposition of background sign al. An improved vascular depiction can be reached by application of a connectivity algorithm, but a very good delimitation of vessel signals from signals of stationary tissue is required for this technique. Res ults of intracranial vessel tracking could be improved by a 3D interpo lation and a preceding highpass filtering of the 3D image dataset.