USE OF MAGNETIZATION-TRANSFER CONTRAST TO IMPROVE CEREBRAL 3D MR-ANGIOGRAPHY

To improve 3D-time of flight (3D-TOF) magnetic resonance angiography, we used magnetisation transfer (MT) to increase the contrast between f lowing blood and stationary tissues. With a 1.5 KHz off-resonance radi o-frequency MT applied for 16 ms at a maximum power within specific ab sorption rate (SAR) limits, a 37% decrease in the signal of white matt er was obtained, whereas the signal from flowing blood decreased by on ly 8%. An improvement in maximum intensity projection (MIP) image qual ity was obtained all MT-3DTOF studies on seven volunteers using progre ssively more powerful MT pulses. Routine clinical use of MT-3DTOF appe ars promising and can be achieved at any strength field.