Virtual Dye Angiography: using Endogenous Contrast to Visualize Blood Flow in MRI-Guided Interventional Procedures

Ashvin Kurian George¹, Anthony Z. Faranesh¹, Kanishka Ratnayaka¹, J. Andrew Derbyshire¹, Robert J. Lederman¹, Michael S. Hansen¹

We introduce a method for non-invasive selective angiography during MRI-guided interventional procedures. The method uses 2D selective excitations and saturations to label a volume of blood upstream of the region of interest. The saturation module is seamlessly integrated into a standard real-time SSFP sequences and can be enabled and controlled interactively. Blood flow is visualized either by imaging the region containing the saturation volume directly or, similar to digital subtraction angiography, by computing the difference with an ECG-synchronized image of the same region without saturation. We present initial results in animals.