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Ultra high field TOF-MRA: A method to visualize small cerebral vessels. 7T TOF-MRA sequence parameters on different MRI scanners – Literature review
Affiliations- Neurosurgery and Pediatric Neurosurgery Department in Lublin, Medical University of Lublin, Poland
- Department of Anatomy in Lublin ul. Jaczewskiego 4 (Collegium Anatomicum), Lublin, Poland
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Abstract
Time-of-flight (TOF) angiography is a technique allowing to visualize the blood flow in vessels. 7T ToF-MRA is able to visualize the whole Circle of Willis including small perforating branches without any known side effects as opposed to usually used DSA and CTA with high exposition to the radiation and high doses of contrast as far as CTA is concerned.
AimThe aim of this review is to describe ultra-high field ToF-MRA and present different protocol data depending on the scanner used in the study.
Materials and methodsPubMed, Embase, Ovid, Google Scholar databases were searched. Selection of studies for this systematic review included 7T magnetic resonance angiography studies. We searched for type of head coil used in various studies, flip angle, echo time, repetition time, field-of-view (FOV), number of slices per slab, matrix, voxel size and acquisition time.
DiscussionVisualization for the small perforating vessels of the Circle of Willis, that are not fully visualized using low-field-strength MRA is improving with increasing magnetic field strength, which has been proved by several studies.
ConclusionUltra-high filed ToF-MRA has found to be a superior method in depicting cerebral microvasculature. 7T ToF-MRA seems to be a reliable method for visualization of arteries up to the second order cerebral arteries and has a potential to replace DSA.
Abstract
Time-of-flight (TOF) angiography is a technique allowing to visualize the blood flow in vessels. 7T ToF-MRA is able to visualize the whole Circle of Willis including small perforating branches without any known side effects as opposed to usually used DSA and CTA with high exposition to the radiation and high doses of contrast as far as CTA is concerned.
AimThe aim of this review is to describe ultra-high field ToF-MRA and present different protocol data depending on the scanner used in the study.
Materials and methodsPubMed, Embase, Ovid, Google Scholar databases were searched. Selection of studies for this systematic review included 7T magnetic resonance angiography studies. We searched for type of head coil used in various studies, flip angle, echo time, repetition time, field-of-view (FOV), number of slices per slab, matrix, voxel size and acquisition time.
DiscussionVisualization for the small perforating vessels of the Circle of Willis, that are not fully visualized using low-field-strength MRA is improving with increasing magnetic field strength, which has been proved by several studies.
ConclusionUltra-high filed ToF-MRA has found to be a superior method in depicting cerebral microvasculature. 7T ToF-MRA seems to be a reliable method for visualization of arteries up to the second order cerebral arteries and has a potential to replace DSA.
Keywords
7T MRI, Ultra high field magnetic resonance, MRA, Magnetic resonance angiography, Cerebral small vessels
About this articleTitle
Ultra high field TOF-MRA: A method to visualize small cerebral vessels. 7T TOF-MRA sequence parameters on different MRI scanners – Literature review
Journal
Neurologia i Neurochirurgia Polska
Issue
Article type
Review Article
Pages
411-418
Page views
839
Article views/downloads
1375
DOI
10.1016/j.pjnns.2017.06.011
Bibliographic record
Neurol Neurochir Pol 2017;51(5):411-418.
Keywords
7T MRI
Ultra high field magnetic resonance
MRA
Magnetic resonance angiography
Cerebral small vessels
Authors
Cezary Grochowski
Grzegorz Staśkiewicz
