Effect of bolus length of intraarterial injections on contrast-enhanced MR-angiography in patients.

Purpose: To perform MR-guided interventions, repetitive injections of contrast agent in the arterial system are necessary. By reducing the intraarterial bolus length during image acquisition and consecutively reducing the gadolinium-chelate-based contrast agent dose, we focus on a comparable vascular depiction. The tradeoff in reducing bolus length is vascular depiction.
Materials and Methods: Intraarterial gadolinium-chelate injection was performed to depict the femoropopliteal artery and infrapopliteal arteries in six patients. Six measurements with a bolus length of 20% to 100% of the total acquisition time were performed (three-dimensional [3D] Turbo-fast low-angle shot (FLASH) sequence, 1.5 T). Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) was determined and a consensus reading of vascular depiction was performed.
Results: CNR values comparable 100% of bolus length were obtained for the femoropopliteal artery at >or=40% and for the infrapopliteal arteries at >or=60%. Qualitative analysis demonstrated that a bolus length of >or=60% is necessary to reveal a good diagnostic vascular depiction.
Conclusion: Quantitatively, a reduction of intraarterial gadolinium-chelate dosage in patients is possible down to 40% in the femoropopliteal artery and to 60% in the infrapopliteal arteries to acquire a CNR comparable to 100% of bolus length. Qualitatively, however, the bolus length can only be reduced down to 60% for both level to produce a good diagnostic vascular depiction and is, for diagnostic purposes, the limiting factor.
(Copyright (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)