Evaluating renal arterial wall by non-enhanced 2D and 3D free-breathing black-blood techniques: Initial experience

Zihan Ning; Shuo Chen; Hao Sun; Rui Shen; Huiyu Qiao; Hualu Han; Dandan Yang; Xihai Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.mri.2021.03.001

Evaluating renal arterial wall by non-enhanced 2D and 3D free-breathing black-blood techniques: Initial experience

Magn Reson Imaging. 2021 Jun:79:5-12. doi: 10.1016/j.mri.2021.03.001. Epub 2021 Mar 5.

Authors

Zihan Ning¹, Shuo Chen¹, Hao Sun², Rui Shen¹, Huiyu Qiao¹, Hualu Han¹, Dandan Yang¹, Xihai Zhao³

Affiliations

¹ Center for Biomedical Imaging Research, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Beijing 100084, China.
² Department of Radiology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing 100005, China.
³ Center for Biomedical Imaging Research, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address: xihaizhao@tsinghua.edu.cn.

PMID: 33677024
DOI: 10.1016/j.mri.2021.03.001

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and reproducibility of 2D and 3D black-blood sequences in measuring morphology of renal arterial wall.

Methods: The 2D and 3D imaging sequences used variable-refocusing-flip-angle and constant-low-refocusing-flip-angle turbo spin echo (TSE) readout respectively, with delicately selected black-blood scheme and respiratory motion trigger for free-breathing imaging. Fourteen healthy subjects and three patients with Takayasu arteritis underwent renal artery wall imaging with 3D double inversion recovery (DIR) TSE and 2D Variable Flip Angle-TSE (VFA-TSE) black-blood sequences at 3.0 T. Four healthy subjects were randomly selected for scan-rescan reproducibility experiments. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and morphology of arterial wall were measured and compared using paired-t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test between 2D and 3D sequences. The inter-observer, intra-observer and scan-rescan agreements of above measurements were determined using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Results: The 2D and 3D imaging sequences showed similar morphological measurements (lumen area, wall area, mean wall thickness and maximum wall thickness) of renal arterial wall (all P > 0.05) and excellent agreement (ICC: 0.853-0.954). Compared to 2D imaging, 3D imaging exhibited significantly lower SNR_lumen (P < 0.01) and SNR_wall (P = 0.037), similar contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) (P = 0.285), and higher CNR efficiency (CNR_eff) (P < 0.01). Both 2D and 3D imaging showed good to excellent inter-observer (ICC: 0.723-0.997), intra-observer (ICC: 0.749-0.996) and scan-rescan (ICC: 0.710-0.992) reproducibility in measuring renal arterial wall morphology, SNR and CNR, respectively.

Conclusions: Both high-resolution free-breathing 2D VFA-TSE and 3D DIR TSE black-blood sequences are feasible and reproducible in high-resolution renal arterial wall imaging. The 2D imaging has high SNR, whereas 3D imaging has high imaging efficiency.

Keywords: Magnetic resonance imaging; Renal artery; Stenosis; Vessel wall.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Black or African American*
Humans
Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
Reproducibility of Results
Signal-To-Noise Ratio