Evaluation of tilted, optimized, non-saturating excitation pulses in 3D magnetic resonance angiography of the abdominal aorta and major branches in volunteers

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Abstract
Ten normotensive volunteers were imaged with FISP-3D (Fast Imaging Steady Precession) pulse sequences (a steady state gradient recalled echo, SS-GRE, technique) without and with modification by tilted, optimized non-saturating excitation (TONE) customized radio frequency (RF) pulses, for evaluation of the abdominal aorta--in particular the renal arteries. Maximum intensity projection (MIP) angiograms were constructed for each sequence in each volunteer; 15 observers "blinded" to sequence type preferred the images generated from the TONE applied sequence. Analysis showed that this preference was significant.