Effect of Flip Angle on Volume Flow Measurement with Non-Triggered Phase-Contrast MR

Hisashi Tanaka¹, Norihiko Fujita, Kenya Murase

Volume flow rates of the bilateral internal carotid artery and the basilar artery were measured with cine and non-triggered phase-contrast MR imaging. For non-triggered phase-contrast imaging, flip angles of 4, 15, 60 and 90 were used for 40 volunteers and of 8, 15 and 30 for 54 volunteers. The ratio of volume flow rate obtained with non-triggered phase-contrast imaging to that obtained with cine phase-contrast imaging significantly increases with an increase in the flip angle. The mean ratios lie within a relatively narrow range of +/- 15 % with a wide range of flip angles of 8 to 90.