Phase-contrast cine MR angiography detection of thoracic aortic dissection

Purpose: To assess prospectively the accuracy of phase-contrast cine MR ang iography in the detection of thoracic aortic dissection with operative corr elation. Materials and methods: One hundred and ninety-seven symptomatic pa tients suspected of having thoracic aortic dissection or aneurysm as well a s 13 patients suspected of having thoracic aortic coarctation and 20 asympt omatic normals (as controls) were examined prospectively with phase-contras t cine MR angiography on a 1.5-T MR imager. Seventy-eight of these patients had operative correlation, and only these 78 patients were included in the statistical analysis. Results: There were 51 true positive and 27 true neg ative findings of thoracic aortic dissection in this study for an accuracy of 100%. Conclusion: Phase-contrast cine MR angiography is an accurate non- invasive imaging technique for evaluating patients suspected of having thor acic aortic dissection.