Accelerated Two-Point Dixon MR Angiography Improves Diagnostic Performance for Cervical Artery Diseases.

Area of Science:

• Radiology and Medical Imaging
• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Neuroimaging

Background:

• Nonenhanced MR angiography (MRA) is crucial for managing cervical artery disease.
• However, lengthy scan times limit the clinical utility of conventional MRA.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an accelerated cervical MRA technique.
• To evaluate its diagnostic performance for cervical artery diseases.

Main Methods:

• A prospective study involving 32 patients with cervical artery disease.
• Comparison of accelerated two-point Dixon 3D Cartesian spoiled gradient-echo (FLEXA) with conventional time-of-flight MRA (cMRA) at 3.0T.
• Quantitative and qualitative assessments by three experienced radiologists, including signal-to-noise ratio, blur, sensitivity, specificity, and visualization scores.

Main Results:

• FLEXA demonstrated a significantly higher artery-to-background signal ratio and reduced blurring compared to cMRA.
• FLEXA showed significantly higher sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV for luminal disease detection.
• Improved visualization scores and diagnostic performance for plaque detection were observed with FLEXA, alongside substantial interreader agreement.

Conclusions:

• The accelerated FLEXA technique significantly enhances visualization of the cervical arterial system.
• FLEXA improves diagnostic performance for both luminal abnormalities and plaques in patients with cervical artery diseases.
• This accelerated MRA offers a more clinically useful alternative to conventional MRA for cervical artery disease management.