Body vascular MR angiography: Using 2D- and 3D-time-of-flight techniques

• Published in: Concepts in magnetic resonance Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 230 - 255
• Main Authors: Shetty, Anil N., Bis, Kostaki G., Shirkhoda, Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York John Wiley & Sons, Inc 2000
• Subjects: magnetic resonance; magnetic resonance angiography; time-of-flight methods; vascular imaging
• ISSN: 1043-7347; 1099-0534
• DOI: 10.1002/1099-0534(2000)12:4<230::AID-CMR4>3.0.CO;2-R

Magnetic resonance (MR) is a rapidly evolving field for imaging soft tissues and blood vessels, noninvasively. Currently, the field of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is the subject of widespread interest for the assessment of vascular disease. The need for such a noninvasive modality stems from the fact that certain patient populations are at a potential risk with conventional contrast angiography. While the acquisition of MR images greatly differs from that of x‐ray angiography, the presentation of images is comparable to the conventional x‐ray angiograms. The objective of this article is to describe the basic physical principles relevant to magnetic resonance angiography. In addition, the basic principles of various techniques and their clinical applications are presented in which the attention is given to the time‐of‐flight (TOF) technique. The optimization of different versions of TOF methods is described and the methods are compared with each other. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson 12: 230–255, 2000