Rajkumar Yarlagadda1, Mark L. Schiebler1, Scott B. Reeder1, 2, Christopher J. Francois1, Thomas M. Grist1, Scott K. Nagle1, 2
1Radiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States; 2Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
The largest study to date comparing MRA with CTA for diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PIOPED III) reported a high technical failure rate of 25% (11-51%) across participating centers. Technical developments since that study have significantly improved the quality of clinical PE MRA examinations. We report here the results of a retrospective image quality evaluation of a high-volume clinical PE MRA practice and suggest the key technical developments that have resulted in greatly improved performance.