Magnetic resonance angiography: state of the art

The recently developed three-dimensional ultrafast sequences are able to acquire the entire aorta or the peripheral district in just 15 s. These sequences offer the possibility to obtain breath-hold images (that avoid breath artifacts) during the contrast medium peak. The technique is called three-dimensional angiography with contrast bolus. To perform the evaluation with this technique, high performance magnet units are needed (high magnetic fields, high gradient with fast ramping times). Clinical indications include the aortic district and especially thoracic aorta diseases and aortic dissections. This technique has great potentialities in the evaluation of the supra-aortic trunks, renal arteries and peripheral district. Shifting the table it is now possible to obtain the contemporary evaluation of both aorta and peripheral district with a single injection of contrast medium. The definition of the arterial district is comparable in many cases to that offered by digital angiography. The combination of magnetic resonance angiography and tomographic magnetic resonance technique is helpful for the endoluminal evaluation (as with digital angiography) and for the study of thrombi and wall as well.