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Updated: May 13, 2025
Retrograde Perfusion and Filling of Mouse Coronary Vasculature as Preparation for Micro Computed Tomography Imaging
Published on: February 10, 2012
Feasibility of magnetization-transfer-contrast relaxation-enhanced angiography without contrast and triggering
Sukran Erdem1, Alexandra Jack2, Pezad Doctor1
1Division of Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
Background:
Relaxation-enhanced angiography without contrast and triggering (REACT) is a flow-independent three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance angiography sequence designed to minimize artifacts using the Dixon method and an inversion recovery pre-pulse. A magnetization transfer contrast (MTC) pre-pulse (MTC-REACT) may further enhance image quality. This study evaluates the feasibility of MTC-REACT and examines deep learning-based reconstruction to improve image quality for pulmonary veins.
Methods:
This study was approved by the institutional review board. Twenty participants were prospectively recruited. Ten-fold undersampling was applied for REACT and MTC-REACT data acquisition. The inline compressed sense (CS) reconstruction algorithm, and an off-line Adaptive-CS-Net algorithm, were used for MTC-REACT and REACT image reconstruction. Commercially available analysis software was used for multi-planar reformatting, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) measurements, and image quality analysis. Categorical data were compared with a Wilcoxon signed ranks test and normally distributed variables with a t-test.
Results:
The Adaptive CS-Net reconstructed MTC-REACT images provided significantly higher SNR and CNR for right pulmonary veins (SNR 33.9±4.1, 30.3±3.4; CNR 33.3±3.4, 29.6±4.3), and left pulmonary veins (SNR 35.0±3.6, 31.2±4.3; CNR 34.6±4.2, 30.6±4.4) with all P values <0.05 compared to the CS-reconstructed MTC-REACT sequence. When Adaptive CS-Net reconstruction is used for both techniques, MTC-REACT images displayed significantly higher SNR and CNR compared to the REACT sequence for only left pulmonary veins (SNR 35±3.3, 32.4±4.6; CNR 34.6±3.4, 31.8±4.6). The Adaptive-CS-Net reconstructed MTC-REACT sequence consistently outperforms the CS-reconstructed MTC-REACT for pulmonary artery and vein imaging.
Conclusions:
The Adaptive-CS-Net reconstructed MTC-REACT images consistently deliver superior CNR, and SNR compared to the CS reconstructed images for pulmonary veins. Notably, the MTC-REACT technique enhances image quality for pulmonary veins compared to the REACT sequence, irrespective of the deep-learning reconstruction method's impact.
