STRESS MR-IMAGING FOR EVALUATION OF POPLITEAL ARTERY ENTRAPMENT

The popliteal artery entrapment (PAE) syndrome has been recognized as a cause of arterial occlusion in young people. It is the result of an anomaly of the relationship between the popliteal artery and the gastr ocnemius muscle. Eight young healthy volunteers (16 legs) and six pati ents (10 legs) with suspected PAE underwent magnetic resonance (MR) im aging. Gradient-echo images were obtained in axial planes with the leg at rest and during active plantar flexion against resistance. Imaging at rest allowed identification of PAE signs in only one leg, which ha d an anomalous medial course of the popliteal artery. In the other cas es, only the stress technique was able to show signal loss in the popl iteal artery due to muscular compression (two legs) or the presence of accessory muscle slip around the vessel (two legs), as confirmed at s urgery. MR imaging is therefore a useful technique for the diagnosis o f PAE because of its capability of combining information obtainable wi th other modalities.