Robust Renal MRA using Breath-Hold, IR-Prep, Dixon BSSFP at 3T

Pauline Wong Worters¹, Manojkumar Saranathan¹, Alan Xu¹, Shreyas Vasanawala¹

A sequence is developed to provide high spatial resolution renal angiograms within breath-holding times. Balanced SSFP has good flow properties, and high T2/T1 contrast and SNR efficiency. IR preparation provides inflow sensitivity, while Dixon technique allows for excellent fat suppression. An efficient k-space trajectory enabled acquisition in 20-30 seconds. We evaluated IR-prep, Dixon bSSFP by comparing it to a commercially available, respiratory-gated technique Inhance IFIR (2-5 min) in 9 patients at 3T. No significant difference in artery visualization or image quality was found between Inhance IFIR and ECG-gated, breath-hold IR-prep, Dixon bSSFP. We have shown a robust sequence that provides diagnostic-quality renal angiograms comparable to a commercially available sequence, with significantly shorter scan times and without compromising spatial coverage and resolution.