Rm. Botnar et al., 3D coronary vessel wall imaging utilizing a local inversion technique withspiral image acquisition, MAGN RES M, 46(5), 2001, pp. 848-854
Citations number
24
Categorie Soggetti
Radiology ,Nuclear Medicine & Imaging","Medical Research Diagnosis & Treatment
Current 2D black blood coronary vessel wall imaging suffers from a relative
ly limited coverage of the coronary artery tree. Hence, a 3D approach facil
itating more extensive coverage would be desirable. The straightforward com
bination of a 3D-acquisition technique together with a dual inversion prepu
lse can decrease the effectiveness of the black blood preparation. To minim
ize artifacts from insufficiently suppressed blood signal of the nearby blo
od pools, and to reduce residual respiratory motion artifacts from the ches
t wall, a novel local inversion technique was implemented. The combination
of a nonselective inversion prepulse with a 2D selective local inversion pr
epulse allowed for suppression of unwanted signal outside a user-defined re
gion of interest. Among 10 subjects evaluated using a 3D-spiral readout, th
e local inversion pulse effectively suppressed signal from ventricular bloo
d, myocardium, and chest wall tissue in all cases. The coronary vessel wall
could be visualized within the entire imaging volume. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss,
Inc.