Abstract #0319

3D Variable-Flip-Angle TSE with Prospective Self-Gating of Swallowing Motion: Initial Experience in Carotid Artery Wall MRI

Zhaoyang Fan¹, Petter Dyverfeldt², Xin Liu³, Sven Zuehlsdorff⁴, Vibhas Deshpande⁵, David Saloner², Debiao Li¹

¹Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ²Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States; ³Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China; ⁴Siemens Cardiovascular R&D, Chicago, IL, United States; ⁵Siemens Healthcare, San Francisco, CA, United States

3D black-blood MRI is a promising technique for carotid artery wall assessment but is inherently susceptible to motion, such as swallowing. A self-gating (SG) method in combination with a 3D variable-flip-angle TSE sequence, SPACE, has been proposed for prospectively gating swallowing motion. This work aimed to test the utility of the SG-SPACE technique on healthy volunteers and patients. Results showed that the SG approach significantly mitigates the swallowing-induced artifacts, including blurred wall boundary and reduced wall-to-background contrast. Significant improvement in image quality and vessel wall delineation was obtained, indicating its potential to enhance the performance of 3D vessel wall MRI.