MR Angiograms (mr + angiogram)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Cerebellar arteriovenous malformation and vertebral artery aneurysm in a CADASIL patient

ACTA NEUROLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 1 2006
F. Pescini
The presence of large vessels malformations has not been reported in cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL). We describe a CADASIL patient in whom a brain cerebellar arteriovenous malformation was revealed by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. An MR angiogram documented also an aneurysm along the right intracranial vertebral artery at the junction with the posterior,inferior cerebellar artery. The aneurysm was successfully treated by means of endovascular coil embolization. No neurological complication occurred in our patient during the angiographic procedure. In this case, in addition to an incidental coexistence of CADASIL and large vessels abnormalities, a causal role of the Notch pathway alteration could be hypothesized. Dysregulation of the Notch pathway is linked to several human diseases besides CADASIL. In one of these (the Alagille syndrome) intracranial aneurysms are reported. This hypothesis contrasts however with the absence of similar reports in other CADASIL cases and needs corroboration in large series. [source]


EEG-fMRI of focal epileptic spikes: Analysis with multiple haemodynamic functions and comparison with gadolinium-enhanced MR angiograms

HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 3 2004
Andrew P. Bagshaw
Abstract Combined EEG-fMRI has recently been used to explore the BOLD responses to interictal epileptiform discharges. This study examines whether misspecification of the form of the haemodynamic response function (HRF) results in significant fMRI responses being missed in the statistical analysis. EEG-fMRI data from 31 patients with focal epilepsy were analysed with four HRFs peaking from 3 to 9 sec after each interictal event, in addition to a standard HRF that peaked after 5.4 sec. In four patients, fMRI responses were correlated with gadolinium-enhanced MR angiograms and with EEG data from intracranial electrodes. In an attempt to understand the absence of BOLD responses in a significant group of patients, the degree of signal loss occurring as a result of magnetic field inhomogeneities was compared with the detected fMRI responses in ten patients with temporal lobe spikes. Using multiple HRFs resulted in an increased percentage of data sets with significant fMRI activations, from 45% when using the standard HRF alone, to 62.5%. The standard HRF was good at detecting positive BOLD responses, but less appropriate for negative BOLD responses, the majority of which were more accurately modelled by an HRF that peaked later than the standard. Co-registration of statistical maps with gadolinium-enhanced MRIs suggested that the detected fMRI responses were not in general related to large veins. Signal loss in the temporal lobes seemed to be an important factor in 7 of 12 patients who did not show fMRI activations with any of the HRFs. Hum. Brain Mapp. 22:179,192, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Increased volume of coverage for abdominal contrast-enhanced MR angiography with two-dimensional autocalibrating parallel imaging: Initial experience at 3.0 Tesla

JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, Issue 5 2009
Darren P. Lum MD
Abstract Purpose: To assess the feasibility and the quality of abdominal three-dimensional (3D) contrast enhanced MR angiograms acquired at 3.0 Tesla (T) using a new 2D-accelerated autocalibrating parallel reconstruction method for Cartesian sampling (2D-ARC). Materials and Methods: With institutional review board approval and written informed consent, a prospective trial in 6 normal healthy volunteers and 23 patients referred for evaluation of suspected renovascular disease was performed. The volunteers underwent abdominal MRA with and without 2D-ARC acceleration. Images were evaluated independently by two blinded vascular radiologists in randomized order. Vessel conspicuity was rated on a five-point scale. Evaluation for significant differences between the scores for each technique was performed using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: In the series of six volunteers, no statistical significance was found between the image quality scores for 2D-ARC accelerated and nonaccelerated exams. A high proportion of the 23 clinical 2D-ARC exams were graded as diagnostic (vessel conspicuity score ,2; Reader 1, 96%; Reader 2, 100%) for overall image quality. Conclusion: Subjective image quality of 2D-ARC accelerated MRA was equivalent to the conventional MRA method. However, the 2D-ARC accelerated sequence provided a 3.5-fold increase in imaging volume, complete abdominal coverage, and a 30% reduction in voxel volume, all within the same acquisition time. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2009;30:1093,1100. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


MR angiography fusion technique for treatment planning of intracranial arteriovenous malformations

JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, Issue 3 2006
Kiaran P. McGee PhD
Abstract Purpose To develop an image fusion technique using elliptical centric contrast-enhanced (CE) MR angiography (MRA) and three-dimensional (3D) time-of-flight (TOF) acquisitions for radiosurgery treatment planning of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). Materials and Methods CE and 3D-TOF MR angiograms with disparate in-plane fields of view (FOVs) were acquired, followed by k-space reformatting to provide equal voxel dimensions. Spatial domain addition was performed to provide a third, fused data volume. Spatial distortion was evaluated on an MRA phantom and provided slice-dependent and global distortion along the three physical dimensions of the MR scanner. In vivo validation was performed on 10 patients with intracranial AVMs prior to their conventional angiogram on the day of gamma knife radiosurgery. Results Spatial distortion in the phantom within a volume of 14 × 14 × 3.2 cm3 was less than ±1 mm (±1 standard deviation (SD)) for CE and 3D-TOF data sets. Fused data volumes were successfully generated for all 10 patients. Conclusion Image fusion can be used to obtain high-resolution CE-MRA images of intracranial AVMs while keeping the fiducial markers needed for gamma knife radiosurgery planning. The spatial fidelity of these data is within the tolerance acceptable for daily quality control (QC) purposes and gamma knife treatment planning. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Semiautomatic segmentation and stenosis quantification of 3D contrast-enhanced MR angiograms of the internal carotid artery

MAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE, Issue 4 2004
Cornelis M. van Bemmel
Abstract A technique is presented for the segmentation and quantification of stenosed internal carotid arteries (ICAs) in 3D contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA). Segmentation with sub-pixel accuracy of the ICA is achieved via level-set techniques in which the central axis serves as the initialization. The central axis is determined between two user-defined points, and minimal user interaction is required. For quantification, the cross-sectional area is measured in the stenosis and at a reference segment in planes perpendicular to the central axis. The technique was applied to 20 ICAs. The variation in measurements obtained by this method in comparison with manual observations was 8.7%, which is smaller than the interobserver variability among three experts (11.0%). Magn Reson Med 51:753,760, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]