[Isoflurane in angiography with magnetic resonance]

The authors investigated if the use of vasodilating drugs could increase Magnetic Resonance angiography (MRA) capabilities in demonstrating intracranial vessels. Twenty patients (mean age: 10 years) were examined with MRA: a vasodilating drug (isoflurane) was administered to 10 of them and 10 matched-pair subjects were selected as controls and submitted to MRA without receiving any drug known to increase cerebral blood flow. MRA was performed with a 1.5-T superconductive magnet; FISP 3D sequences were used in all cases. A multiple choice card was used by a reader reporting the following diagnostic information for the different segments of the intracranial vessels: 1) hyperintense and homogeneous vessel with high signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio; 2) hyperintense and heterogeneous vessel with high S/N ratio; 3) hyperintense vessel with low S/N ratio; 4) poor vessels depiction. Small vessels (ophthalmic arteries, A3, M3, M4, anterior communicating arteries and P2 segments) were better demonstrated with isoflurane than with conventional MRA. The results were compared with the Mann-Withney test: isoflurane MRA allowed good vessel depiction in 127 cases, versus 83 of conventional MRA; the difference was statistically significant. To conclude, the use of vasodilating drugs represents a new research field in MRA of the intracranial vessels.