Vessel-Mimicking Mask for Improved Unfolding in SENSE-Accelerated CE-MRA

Eric G. Stinson¹, Casey P. Johnson¹, Stephen J. Riederer¹

Masking in SENSE unfolding is known to reduce noise amplification and preserve SNR. Further, in contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA), the final volume of interest is often a difference volume where, in the ideal case, signal is only present in the vasculature. The purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of improving the performance of 2D SENSE in 3D CE-MRA by masking all non-vascular voxels prior to performing the SENSE unfolding of a difference angiogram. Thigh CE-MRA exams were unfolded with conventional and vessel-mimicking masks and compared with respect to maximum intensity projection contrast-to-noise ratio and mean g-factor.