Recent Developments in Continuously Moving Table Peripheral MR Angiography and Contrast-Enhanced Int

Speaker: H. Harry Hu, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Magnetic Resonance Laboratory, Rochester, MinnesotaAbstract:
Under the direction of Dr. Stephen J. Riederer, our group's primary focus over the past five years has been contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) with parallel imaging and partial Fourier acquisition methods. My presentation will be divided into two parts. The first portion is technically oriented. I will review a method of continuously moving table (CMT) MRI developed in our laboratory, discuss some of the technical challenges in its implementation, and provide the motivation for using CMT in peripheral CE-MRA. A collection of in vivo clinical results will be shown, not only from the original CMT approach conceived in 2002, but also from recent developments that have incorporated non-traditional k-sampling trajectories and dynamic variations in scanner table velocity and acquisition field-of-view. The second portion of the talk is clinically driven, focusing on the collaborations between our research group and Mayo's clinicians to improve the institution's MR radiology practice. Our most recent project has involved 3D CE-MRA of the lower-legs and 3D contrast-enhanced MR venography (CE-MRV). In the latter, intracranial CE-MRV requires an imaging volume that encompasses the full anterior/posterior and right/left extent of the brain with sub-millimeter spatial resolution for accurate visualization of the venous system. At our institution, these specifications can easily push acquisition times over 4 minutes, well beyond the duration of the administered contrast bolus. CE-MRV is thus an ideal candidate for accelerated MR acquisition techniques such as parallel imaging and partial Fourier. Representative examples from several clinical studies will be shown, where four to nine-fold accelerated acquisitions (30 to 60 seconds) achieved with 2D-SENSE, 2D partial Fourier, and the combination of both, yield results that are rated as either superior or equivalent to corresponding non-accelerated scans for diagnostic image quality by evaluating radiologists.

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Kaleena Richards