125 m Spatial Resolution Steady State MRA of the Upper Legs with a Blood Pool Contrast Agent Using the Quadrature Body Coil at 1.5T

Dariusch Reza Hadizadeh¹, Guido Matthias Kukuk¹, Marius Kaschner¹, Carsten Meyer¹, Kai Wilhelm¹, Arne Koscielny², Frauke Verrel², Jrgen Gieseke¹, Hans Heinz Schild¹, Winfried Albert Willinek¹

The blood pool contrast agent (BPCA) gadofosveset trisodium provides high vessel-to-background contrast during a prolonged imaging time window. 125 m high spatial resolution 3DMRA (HRMRA) at 1.5T was acquired with the quadrature body coil only after application of the BPCA in 7 patients who suffered from peripheral arterial occlusive disease. Stenosis grading was compared to DSA. Overall image quality was rated diagnostic in all patients and stenosis grading in HRMRA matched with that in DSA in all patients. HRMRA provided high SNR and CNR in arterial and venous vessels. 125 m HRMRA is feasible using a quadrature body coil only.