An MRI Examination for Evaluation of Aortic Dissection Using a Blood Pool Agent

Methods Ten patients with Type B aortic dissection underwent MRI at 3.0 T (Philips Healthcare) with a 6-element cardiac coil. After an initial survey and reference scan, direct thrombus imaging was performed by an inversion recovery (IR) ECG-triggered respiratory-navigated 3D TFE sequence (FOV: 300 × 255 × 60 mm3 with 2 × 2 × 2.5 mm3 resolution, TI = 490 ms, TFE-factor = 36, TR/TE = 3.2/1 ms). A blood-pool agent (Gadofosveset) (dose 0.12 ml/kg at 4 ml/s) was injected and first-pass imaging performed by 3D CE MRA (FOV = 420 × 280 × 135 mm3, resolution = 1.8 mm3, FA = 35°, TR/TE = 6.0/1.8 ms), breathhold, without cardiac gating. Two-dimensional flow analyses were performed at 4 aortic levels (FOV = 2 × 2 × 10 mm3, FA = 10°, TR/TE = 5.0/2.7 ms, 25 cardiac-phases, VENC = 250 cm/s). For blood-pool imaging, a respiratory-navigated ECG-triggered IR-3D SSFP sequence was used (FOV = 400 × 253 × 156 mm3, resolution = 1.5 mm3, FA = 20°, TI = 350 ms, TR/TE = 4.0/1.3 ms, TFE-factor = 22). The volume of thrombus was extracted from the different datasets (first pass MRA, blood pool MRI and first pass CT) by an expert using manual segmentation (ViewForum, Philips Healthcare). Areas of low signal on blood pool images were correlated with direct thrombus images Figure 1. from 13th Annual SCMR Scientific Sessions Phoenix, AZ, USA. 21-24 January 2010