Purpose: To comparatively analyze two fast in vivo multislice black-blood carotid artery vessel wall imaging techniques with and without cardiac gating.
Materials and methods: Eight subjects with carotid artery atherosclerosis, and four healthy subjects were studied using two black-blood multislice techniques: rapid extended coverage double inversion recovery (REX-DIR), and inflow/outflow saturation band (IOSB) rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement (RARE) multislice acquisitions. Quantitative, qualitative, and morphometric analyses were performed on images.
Results: Gating produced significantly lower values for the REX-DIR sequence with respect to signal intensity in muscle and the carotid artery wall, whereas it had no effect on flow suppression compared to non-gated images. For the IOSB sequences, gating had no significant effect on signal intensity of muscle and the carotid artery wall, but worsened flow suppression. REX-DIR and IOSB sequences were statistically different with respect to signal intensity of muscle (with REX-DIR sequences having lower values), while no statistical significance was observed for flow suppression and wall delineation. A morphologic analysis of the vessel wall and lumen comparing REX-DIR gated, IOSB gated, REX-DIR non-gated, and IOSB non-gated sequences revealed no significant differences between the acquisition techniques tested.
Conclusion: Non-gated sequences may be used instead of gated sequences in atherosclerotic vessel wall imaging without compromising image quality. This may shorten examination time and improve patient comfort.
J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2005. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.