Masami Yoneyama1, Hajime Tanji2, Tomoya Yamaki2, Daisuke Takahashi2, Makoto Obara1, Tomoyuki Okuaki3, and Marc Van Cauteren3
1Philips Electronics Japan, Tokyo, Japan, 2Kita-Fukushima Medical Center, Fukushima, Japan, 3Philips Healthcare Asia Pacific, Tokyo, Japan
Simultaneous acquisition of both MR angiography and MR neurography would be extremely helpful for diagnosing thoracic outlet syndrome. This study proposed a novel sequence, motion-sensitized driven-equilibrium (MSDE) prepared phase-cycling gradient echo (pcMSDE), for achieving simultaneous depiction of both MR angiography and MR neurography. By using this sequence, MR neurography images were obtained by MSDE (with motion sensitized gradient (MSG)) scan. MR angiography images were obtained by subtraction between “b0” scan (without MSG) and MSDE (with MPG) images. Additionally, this sequence could simultaneously offer the anatomical proton-density images and “self-fusion” images (MR NeuroAngiography) by using MR neurography and MR angiography. This sequence has great potential to help the diagnosis for any type of TOS. Further clinical investigation is needed.
