Abstract #1970

Wang M, Hartmann M, Maki J, Hoogeveen R, Haynor D, Wilson G

Blood pool agents have higher relaxivity and prolonged intravascular half-life compared to Gd contrast agents. Longer scan times can be used for high resolution imaging in the equilibrium phase to improve visualization of the vasculature. We optimized MR parameters (flip angle, TE, TR, bandwidth) to obtain high resolution and contrast-to-noise images of the lower extremity using the Vasovist blood pool agent. Computational tools were developed to perform artery-vein separation on healthy and patient data. We provide imaging guidelines for equilibrium-phase CE-MRA using blood pool agents that may be useful when these agents become clinically available.