Centrally fat‐saturated three‐dimensional magnetic resonance angiography of the abdomen using selective central fat‐saturation of k‐space

Abstract

To assess the usefulness of centrally fat-saturated three-dimensional magnetic resonance (MR) angiography of the abdomen using an elliptical centric view order and selective placement of fat-saturation pulses in the central 30% portion of the k-space in terms of fat signal reduction, image contrast of post-contrast images, and breath-holding time. Fat signal in abdomen and breath-holding time were compared between centrally fat-saturated three-dimensional sequence and partially fat-saturated three-dimensional sequence or conventional fat-saturated three-dimensional sequence. Abdominal contrast-enhanced centrally fat-saturated three-dimensional MR angiography was obtained at arterial and equilibrium phases, and image quality was quantitatively and visually evaluated. Centrally fat-saturated three-dimensional sequence suppressed fat signal, as did the conventional fat-saturated three-dimensional sequence, and the breath-hold was prolonged only by 1.5 seconds compared to the partially fat-saturated three-dimensional sequence. Contrast-enhanced centrally fat-saturated three-dimensional MR angiography provided abdominal MR arteriography with large signal difference between vessels and fat, while venous signal was insufficient at equilibrium phase. Abdominal contrast-enhanced centrally fat-saturated three-dimensional MR angiography using an elliptical centric view order and selective central fat-saturation of k-space reduced fat signal comparable to conventional fat-saturated three-dimensional sequence, and provided contrast-enhanced MR arteriography with high vascular contrast and minimum prolongation of breath-hold.