Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of applying the shells trajectory to single-phase contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography. Materials and Methods: Several methods were developed to overcome the challenges of the clinical implementation of shells including off-resonance blurring (eg, from lipid signal), aliasing artifacts, and long reconstruction times. These methods included: 1) variable TR with variable readout length to reduce fat signal and off-resonance blurring; 2) variable sampling density to suppress aliasing artifacts while minimizing acquisition time penalty; and 3) an online 3D gridding algorithm that reconstructed an 8-channel, 2403 image volume set. Both phantom and human studies were performed to establish the initial feasibility of the methods. Results: Phantom and human study results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Shells with variable TR and readout length further suppressed the fat signal compared to the fixed-TR shells acquisition. Reduced image aliasing was achieved with minimal scan time penalty when a variable sampling density technique was used. The fast online reconstruction algorithm completed in 2 minutes at the scanner console, providing a timely image display in a clinical setting. Conclusion: It was demonstrated that the use of the shells trajectory is feasible in a clinical setting to acquire intracranial angiograms with high spatial resolution. Preliminary results demonstrate effective venous suppression in the cavernous sinuses and jugular vein region.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1101-1109 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2009 |
Keywords
- Angiography
- Contrast-enhanced
- Gridding
- Shells
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging