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Abstract #1205

The Effects of Chemically Shifted Perivascular Fat in Quantitative Phase Contrast MRI

Matthew J. Middione1,2, Abbas N. Moghadam1,3, Yutaka Natsuaki4, Daniel B. Ennis1,5

1Department of Radiological Sciences, Diagnostic Cardiovascular Imaging Section, University of California,, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 2Biomedical Physics Interdepartmental Program, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 3Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic),, Tehran, Iran; 4Siemens Medical Solutions, Malvern, PA, United States; 5Biomedical Physics Interdepartmental Program, University of California,, Los Angeles, CA, United States


Chemical shift artifacts can corrupt blood flow quantification in Phase Contrast MRI (PC-MRI). Specifically, perivascular fat can chemically shift across the vessel wall and into the lumen, thereby leading to over or underestimation of blood velocity within a vessel, depending on the imaging protocol. The degree to which chemical shift disrupts blood flow measurements depends on the readout bandwidth and the echo time. We propose that using a higher readout bandwidth reduces chemical shift artifacts in PC-MRI and concomitantly improves the accuracy of quantitative blood flow measurements.