SCREENING OF RENAL-ARTERY STENOSIS - ASSESSMENT WITH MAGNETIC-RESONANCE ANGIOGRAPHY AT 1.0 T

The results of MR angiography at 1.0 T with digital intraarterial angi ography in the screening of patients with suspected renal hypertension were compared. In the first phase of the study, 10 volunteers underwe nt examination with both two-dimensional (2D) with traveling saturatio n time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with vario us parameters to develop a protocol for evaluation of the renal arteri es, In the second phase, 36 patients with suspected renovascular hyper tension underwent both 2D TOF MRA and intraarterial digital angiograph y to evaluate the clinical value of MRA. The degree of stenosis was gr aded with a two-point scale, In volunteers, using 2D acquisitions, C/N ratios indicated the best flip angle as being 55 degrees (p = .02), M RA showed 100% (70/70) of all main arteries and 86% (6/7) of all acces sory renal arteries seen on angiography, MRA had a sensitivity of 94% (15/16) and a specificity of 98% (60/61) for detection of stenoses of greater than 50% present in 14 patients. 2D-TOF MRA at 1.0 T shows pro mise in the noninvasive diagnosis of patients with suspected renovascu lar hypertension. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.