3D-black-blood 3T-MRI for the diagnosis of thoracic large vessel vasculitis: A feasibility study.

Abstract

To evaluate the feasibility of T1w-3D black-blood turbo spin echo (TSE) sequence with variable flip angles for the diagnosis of thoracic large vessel vasculitis (LVV). Thirty-five patients with LVV, diagnosed according to the current standard of reference, and 35 controls were imaged at 3.0T using 1.2 × 1.3 × 2.0mm3 fat-suppressed, T1w-3D, modified Volumetric Isotropic TSE Acquisition (mVISTA) pre- and post-contrast. Applying a navigator and peripheral pulse unit triggering (PPU), the total scan time was 10-12min. Thoracic aorta and subclavian and pulmonary arteries were evaluated for image quality (IQ), flow artefact intensity, diagnostic confidence, concentric wall thickening and contrast enhancement (CWT, CCE) using a 4-point scale. IQ was good in all examinations (3.25 ± 0.72) and good to excellent in 342 of 408 evaluated segments (83.8%), while 84.1% showed no or minor flow artefacts. The interobserver reproducibility for the identification of CCE and CWT was 0.969 and 0.971 (p < 0.001) with an average diagnostic confidence of 3.47 ± 0.64. CCE and CWT were strongly correlated (Cohen'sk = 0.87; P < 0.001) and significantly more frequent in the LVV-group (52.8% vs. 1.0%; 59.8% vs. 2.4%; P < 0.001). Navigated fat-suppressed T1w-3D black-blood MRI with PPU-triggering allows diagnosis of thoracic LVV. • Cross-sectional imaging is frequently applied in the diagnosis of LVV. • Navigated, PPU-triggered, T1w-3D mVISTA pre- and post contrast takes 10-12min. • In this prospective, single-centre study, T1w-3D mVISTA accurately depicted large thoracic vessels. • T1w-3D mVISTA visualized CWT/CCW as correlates of mural inflammation in LVV. • T1w-3D mVISTA might be an alternative diagnostic tool without ionizing radiation.