Purpose: To investigate the potentials of 3D breath-hold contrast-enhanced Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) in the diagnosis, follow-up and treatment planning of abdominal aortic aneurysms.
Material and methods: Twenty-four patients with infrarenal aortic aneurysm underwent MRA. We used a 1.5 T unit (GE Horizon, Echospeed 8.2), a phased array surface coil and 3D Fast SPGR T1-weighted sequences acquired on the coronal plane during patient breath-hold and after contrast agent i.v. administration. A bolus-test was done before angiography to optimize imaging delay time. After 3D MRA a Fast-SPGR T1-weighted sequence was acquired on the axial plane. The 3D MRA source images were processed with the MIP algorithm. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were carried out. Helical CT was performed in 6 cases and DSA in 7 cases. Surgery was the reference standard in 15 patients.
Results: MRA depicted aneurysm thrombosis in 22 cases, carrefour involvement in 18 cases and iliac arteries involvement in 3 cases. Accessory renal arteries were shown in 4 cases; iliac artery stenosis was associated in 5 cases. There was agreement between MR and Helical CT and DSA findings: surgery confirmed MRA results in 15/15 cases.
Conclusions: 3D contrast-enhanced MRA can be considered the method of choice in the follow-up and treatment planning of abdominal aortic aneurysms, because it provides both angiographic and tomographic images: this allows to obtain more information, noninvasively and without the use of ionizing radiations.