Zhaoyang Fan1,2, Xiaoming Bi3,
Xiangzhi Zhou1, Sven Zuehlsdorff3, Rohan Dharmakumar1,
James Carr1, Debiao Li1,2
1Radiology, Northwestern University,
Chicago, IL, United States; 2Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern
University, Evanston, IL, United States; 3Cardiac MR R&D,
Siemens Healthcare, Chicago, IL, United States
A
noncontrast MRA technique using ECG-triggered 3D balanced SSFP with
flow-sensitive dephasing (FSD) preparation has recently been validated in the
distal lower extremities of healthy volunteers. The FSDs first-order
gradient moment, m1, is shown to be the most important parameter to determine
angiographic quality. This work developed a 2D m1-scout approach in which
incremental m1 values were rapidly used to acquire 2D black-blood images and the
optimal m1 value can be selected for 3D MRA. Its usefulness is validated on
flow phantom and five healthy volunteer legs. This approach may also improve
FSD-based vessel wall imaging.