3D TIME-RESOLVED CONTRAST-ENHANCED MR DSA - ADVANTAGES AND TRADEOFFS

The 3D TRICKS method for contrast-enhanced, time-resolved MR DSA has b een recently described, In this paper, computer simulations are used t o investigate the relative frame rate, temporal window, artery-vein te mporal separation, contrast-to-noise ratio, and spatial resolution of TRICKS and conventional scans for breath-hold and non-breath-hold appl ications, For non-breath-hold applications, TRICKS can be configured t o provide increased CNR or spatial resolution at an increased frame ra te, but with a longer temporal window when compared with a series of c onventional scans in which the central portion of k-space is sampled a t the same rate as for the TRICKS scans, For breath-hold applications, TRICKS typically provides three images with 75% of the conventional s ingle acquisition spatial resolution and is more tolerant of variation s in contrast curve shape within the field of view.