Non-Contrast Enhanced 3D SSFP MRA of the Renal Allograft Vasculature: A Comparison Between Radial Linear Combination and Cartesian Inflow-Weighted Acquisitions

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• 作者：Eric M. Bultman ; Jessica Klaers ; Kevin M. Johnson ; Christopher J. Fran莽ois ; Mark L. Schiebler ; Scott B. Reeder ; Walter F. Block
• 关键词：Magnetic Resonance Angiography ; Renal Transplantation ; Renal Allograft ; Non Contrast Magnetic Resonance Angiography ; VIPR-SSFP ; IFIR ; NCE-MRA ; Renal Angiography ; Balanced SSFP
• 刊名：Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• 出版年：February, 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：32
• 期：2
• 页码：190-195
• 全文大小：1009 K

文摘

Renal transplant patients often require imaging to ensure appropriate graft placement, to assess integrity of transplant vessel anastomosis and to evaluate for stenosis that can be a cause of graft failure. Because there is risk for nephrogenic systemic fibrosis in the setting of renal insufficiency, the use of non-contrast MRA in these patients is helpful. In this study, the ability of two non-contrast MRA methods - 3D radial linear combination balanced SSFP (VIPR-SSFP) and inflow-weighted Cartesian SSFP (IFIR) - to visualize the transplant renal vessels is compared. Twenty-one renal transplant patients were scanned using the VIPR-SSFP and IFIR sequences. Diagnostic efficacy of the sequences was scored using a four point Likert scale according to the following criteria: overall image quality, fat suppression, and arterial/venous visualization quality. Average scores for each criterion were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. In addition to significantly improved venous visualization, the VIPR-SSFP sequence provided significantly improved fat suppression quality (p < 0.03) compared to IFIR. VIPR-SSFP also identified several pathologies such as renal arterial pseudoaneurysm that were not visible on the IFIR images. However, IFIR afforded superior quality of arterial visualization (p < 0.005). These two methods of non-contrast MR imaging each have significant strengths and are complementary to each other in evaluating the vasculature of renal allografts.