Steady State Imaging with Blood Pool Contrast Agent MRA in Patients with Critical Lower Limb Ischaemia for Venous Mapping Bypass Graft Assessment - Initial Experience

Giles Roditi¹, Douglas Orr²

Patients for bypass grafting need vein suitability assessed. High resolution blood pool contrast agent imaging compared to ultrasound in 20 patients with gadofosveset for MRA. Deep veins assessed for patency, quality & calibre. Vein diameters assessed as similar calibre. MRA showed more veins, divisions and perforating tributaries. MRI studies judged more informative than the descriptive ultrasound reports except for one patient with poor image quality due to severe pain during scan. Lower limb MRA performed with blood pool contrast agent and steady state imaging may obviate additional ultrasound examination in assessment for potential bypass grafting. Challenge to ensure consistent image quality.