Three-dimensional magnetic resonance angiography of vascular lesions in children

We applied three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance (MR) angiography to va scular lesions in children and evaluated the clinical usefulness of this te chnique. Ten patients, whose ages ranged from 1 month to 16 years, underwen t 3D MR angiography for 12 vascular lesions, including lesions in seven pul monary arteries, two thoracic aortae, a pair of renal arteries, and one ili ac artery. Three-dimensional MR angiography was performed with body- or pel vic-phased array coils on a 1.5-T scanner using fast spoiled gradient echo sequence. Data were acquired with the following parameters: TE. 1.9 ms; TR, 10.1 ms; flip angle, 20-60 degrees; 1 or 2 NEX; field of view, 24-48 x 18- 40 cm; matrix, 256 or 512 x 128 or 256; slice thickness, 1.2-7.5 mm; and 12 , 28, or 60 partitions. Vascular imaging was enhanced with 20% gadolinium-d iethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid. The examination was performed under brea th-holding in six patients and with shallow breathing in four patients. In a comparative study with other noninvasive methods, 3D MR angiography was s uperior in seven of nine cases to other noninvasive examinations and in two cases, all methods evaluated the lesions. Furthermore, six cases were comp ared with conventional angiography. In five of the six cases, both methods depicted the lesions similarly, and in one case, MR angiography was more ef fective. A quantitative comparison of vascular diameter in the MR image was made with that in the conventional angiographic image. The correlation bet ween them was excellent: y = 1.145x - 2.090 (r = 0.987; P < 0.0001), where x is the diameter in the conventional angiographic images, y is the diamete r in the MR images, and r is the correlation coefficient. In conclusion, 3D MR angiography is useful for depicting peripheral vascular lesions in chil dren.