Abstract #1953

Knopp M, Heverhagen J, Jourdan C

This study was an intra-individual comparison of single-dose and double-dose Gd-DTPA enhanced MRA in the carotid arterial territory with blinded evaluations by two independent radiologists. Carotid MRAs were carried out in eleven healthy volunteers at 1.5 Tesla with a three-dimensional fast spoiled gradient echo sequence. Contrast agent was injected with a power injector keeping the injection time constant for both dosages. Both readers found at least 97% of vascular segments evaluable. Median overall image quality and diagnostic confidence were rated excellent. Our results suggest that a single dosage of approximately 0.1 mmol/kg bw Gd-DTPA may be the preferable dosage in the carotid arteries.