Breath-hold and Free-Breathing Single-Shot Radial Quiescent-Interval Slice-Selective (QISS) MRA for Evaluation of the Pulmonary Arteries

For suspected pulmonary embolism, CTA is the first-line imaging test, with CEMRA a potential alternative. Disadvantages including exposure to ionizing radiation and iodine contrast for CTA, while CEMRA is sensitive to respiratory motion and requires a gadolinium-based contrast agent. As a nonenhanced alternative, we tested breath-hold and free-breathing versions of single-shot radial QISS. Compared with the reference standard, all pulmonary artery branches down to the segmental level were visualized by breath-hold and navigator-gated QISS. With further optimization and validation, radial QISS has the potential to provide a nonenhanced alternative to CTA and CEMRA for the evaluation of suspected pulmonary embolism.