Aortic vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging at 3.0 tesla: A reproducibility study of respiratory navigator gated free-breathing 3D black blood magnetic resonance imaging

Stijntje D. Roes, Jos J.M. Westenberg, Joost Doornbos, Rob J. Van Der Geest, Emmanuelle Angelié, Albert De Roos, Matthias Stuber

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a free-breathing three-dimensional (3D) dual inversion-recovery (DIR) segmented k-space gradient-echo (turbo field echo [TFE]) imaging sequence at 3T for the quantification of aortic vessel wall dimensions. The effect of respiratory motion suppression on image quality was tested. Furthermore, the reproducibility of the aortic vessel wall measurements was investigated. Seven healthy subjects underwent 3D DIR TFE imaging of the aortic vessel wall with and without respiratory navigator. Subsequently, this sequence with respiratory navigator was performed twice in 10 healthy subjects to test its reproducibility. The signal-to-noise (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), vessel wall sharpness, and vessel wall volume (VWV) were assessed. Data were compared using the paired t-test, and the reproduc- ibility of VWV measurements was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). SNR, CNR, and vessel wall sharpness were superior in scans performed with respiratory navigator compared to scans performed without. The ICCs concerning intraobserver, interobserver, and interscan repro- ducibility were excellent (0.99, 0.94, and 0.95, respectively). In conclusion, respiratory motion suppression substantially improves image quality of 3D DIR TFE imaging of the aortic vessel wall at 3T. Furthermore, this optimized technique with respiratory motion suppression enables assessment of aortic vessel wall dimensions with high reproducibility.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)35-44
Number of pages10
JournalMagnetic resonance in medicine
Volume61
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • 3T MRI
  • Aortic vessel wall
  • Black- Blood
  • Reproducibility
  • Respiratory motion suppression

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Aortic vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging at 3.0 tesla: A reproducibility study of respiratory navigator gated free-breathing 3D black blood magnetic resonance imaging'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this