Contrast-enhanced 3D MR venography of thoracic central veins: Preliminary experience

Purpose: To evaluate the usefulness of three-dimensional (30) gadolinium-en hanced magnetic resonance (MR) venography for evaluation of thoracic centra l veins. Materials and Methods: Over a 4-month period, 14 patients with sus pected central venous abnormalities were examined on a 1.5T scanner (Magnet om Sonata (R), SIEMANS, Germany) by means of MR venography. A FLASH-3D sequ ence using the following parameters was employed: TR 1.6 ms, TE 0.6ms, TA 3 .74s, flip: 15 degrees, slab thickness 110 mm, effective slice thickness: 2 .75 mm, 40 partitions, FOV 360 mm, matrix 140 x 256. 10 s prior to imaging 20 mi of Gd-DOPTA (Multihance (R), BRACCO, Italy) were automatically inject ed (MEDRAD (R), Pittsburgh, USA) flushed by 20 ml of normal saline (flow 4 ml/s). Six 3D data sets were acquired in immediate succession in under 24 s . Results were corroborated with findings from duplex sonography. Results: MR venograms were of diagnostic quality for all 14 patients. Compared to du plex sonography thromboses, post-thrombotic changes as well as functional c ompressions were reliably detected. Unsuspected findings were found in two patients. Conclusion: The outlined strategy allows for dynamic diagnostic i maging of central thoracic veins. Gadolinium-enhanced breath-hold 30 MR ven ography is easy to perform, well tolerated and highly accurate in assessing central venous pathology.