Contrast‐enhanced, ultrafast 3d pulmonary MR angiography in a single breath‐hold: Initial assessment of imaging performance

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Abstract
An ultrafast three‐dimensional (3D) sequence was developed, enabling the acquisition of 44 contiguous 2.0‐to 2.2‐mm thin sections, during intravenous application of paramagnetic contrast, in a single breath‐hold. To estimate the potential clinical usefulness, images were assessed qualitatively and quantitatively with regard to visibility of main, lobar, segmental, and subsegmental pulmonary arteries. Five volunteers were examined using a 192 × 192 matrix with an imaging time of 23 seconds and five other volunteers with a 160 × 160 matrix (18 seconds). Each volunteer was imaged in apnea and during shallow respiration. The breath‐held 23‐second scans revealed excellent image quality and near complete visualization of central and segmental, as well as 81% of subsegmental, pulmonary arteries. Imaging time can be shortened to 18 seconds with only marginal loss in visualization performance (P < .05). Respiratory motion was found to cause significant worsening of image quality and vessel detectability. To maintain relevance in a clinical setting, imaging time can be minimized at the cost of a reduction in spatial resolution.