Non-Enhanced MR Angiography of the External Carotid Artery and Its Branches Using True Steady-State Free-Precession (SSFP) Sequence with Time Spatial Labeling Inversion Pulse (T-SLIP) Technique

Naoe Satogami¹, Tomohisa Okada¹, Takashi Koyama¹, Kimio Gotoh¹, Toshikazu Kamae¹, Kaori Togashi¹

Our purpose was to evaluate non-enhanced external carotid MR angiography using true SSFP with T-SLIP and to provide the optimal TI value. Images with TI of 600, 900, 1200, and 1500 ms were obtained in 20 volunteers and the main external carotid artery, eight first-order branches, and two second-order branches were visually scored. The relative signal intensity of the external carotid artery and sternocleidomastoid muscle was also calculated. True SSFP with T-SLIP showed favorable visibility of the external carotid artery system and a TI of 1200 ms was optimal from the perspective of arterial visualization and background suppression.