[Contrast-enhanced 3D MR angiography of the chest and abdomen with breath-holding using phase reordering]

This report presents the feasibility of phase-recordered contrast-enhanced three-dimensional MR angiography in 32 consecutive patients with vascular abnormalities in the chest and abdomen. To suppress motion artifacts due to respiratory corruption, a phase-reordering technique was introduced so that the low frequency components of the phase data were obtained first during the imaging period. Image quality and degree of motion suppression were assessed by four radiologists independently without information on breath-holding time. Abnormalities were detected in 30 cases (93.8%), and their extent was correctly assessed in 28 cases (87.5%). More confident assessment was possible in abnormalities of the pulmonary vessels and thoracic aorta than in those of the abdominal aorta and portal venous system. With phase reordering, more than 20 seconds of breath-holding ensured image quality sufficient to correctly assess the vascular abnormalities. While this technique is easy and requires only single breath-holding, it can provide excellent MRA without slice-to-slice spatial misregistration.