Kidney stones affect 1 in 11 people in the United States and renal colic resulting from obstructing stones is a frequent cause of emergency department visits. Non-contrast CT of the abdomen and pelvis is the primary imaging test but has the drawback of exposing the patient to potentially significant amounts of ionizing radiation. A motion-corrected proton density-weighted in-phase stack-of-stars (PDIP SOS) FLASH pulse sequence was developed to provide a potential imaging alternative. Using this approach, we have demonstrated for the first time the feasibility of using MRI to detect kidney stones with image quality that is competitive to CT.
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