Daniel V. Litwiller1,
Dan W. Rettmann1, Mahdi S. Rahimi2, Harald Kramer3,
James F. Glockner4, Frank R. Korosec5, James H. Holmes6
1Global
Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Rochester, MN, United States; 2Biomedical
Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States; 3Radiology,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States; 4Department
of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States; 5Radiology
and Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States; 6Global
Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Madison, WI, United States
Inflow-based angiography techniques, such as time-of-flight (TOF), inflow inversion-recovery (IFIR), and quiescent-inflow single-shot (QISS), preferentially select for a single direction of vascular flow. Here, we propose an interleaved, QISS-based approach to the simultaneous acquisition of directionally-opposed arterial and venous signal in the lower extremities, which results in the formation of two independent, two-dimensional images per heartbeat. We believe this strategy may allow the detection of additional, clinically-relevant features, such as venous compression and/or thrombus without adding scan time or compromising quality and robustness of the original QISS MRA.