Jennifer A. Febbo1, Mauricio S. Galizia1, 2, Andrada R. Popescu3, Xiaoming Bi4, Jeremy Collins1, Michael Markl1, Robert R. Edelman2, James C. Carr1
1Department of Radiology, Northwestern University-Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States; 2Department of Radiology, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL, United States; 3Department of Medical Imaging, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL, United States; 4Cardiovascular MR R&D, Siemens Healthcare, Chicago, IL, United States
Twenty-three adult patients with congenital heart disease were imaged with contrast-enhanced MRA using a blood-pool contrast agent. The protocol consisted of a first-pass (FP) MRA and two MRA sequences at the steady-state (SS) contrast phase (5-10 min after injection): inversion-recovery (IR) FLASH and IR-SSFP. Image quality, the presence of pathology, and aortic measurements in several vessels was recorded by two observers. There was no significant difference in aortic dimensions at all anatomic locations between FP-MRA and SS-MRA. Image quality scores were higher for SS-MRA compared to FP-MRA. More pathological abnormalities were seen with SS-MRA than FP-MRA.