Double Bolus Application in TWIST-MR-Angiography of the Cervical Arteries

Abstract EN

Purpose.

The aim of the present work was to test the feasibility of the time-resolved MR-angiography (TWIST-MRA) of cervical arteries using double bolus injection.

Material and Methods.

TWIST-MRA with a temporal resolution of 8.4 seconds for each frame and a spatial resolution with a voxel size of 0.61×0.58×0.8 mm3 was performed in 24 patients.

A biphasic bolus injection protocol was used with the second injection being started 21 seconds after the first contrast dye bolus.

Diagnostic image quality was rated according to a 4-point scale.

Results.

In 12 patients (50%) no clear separation between the cervical venous and arterial vessels was evident after the first bolus injection.

Using TWIST-MRA data acquired after the second bolus a sufficient diagnostic image quality (rating ≥3, mean 3.5) could be obtained in 22 of 24 patients (92%).

Discussion.

The double bolus injection protocol using TWIST-MRA allows for very good separation of the cervical arteries.