Purpose: To evaluate the usefulness of half-dose contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) angiography for depicting the abdominal aorta and its major branches.
Materials and methods: A total of 72 consecutive patients were randomly assigned to one of four groups that underwent MR angiography after receiving different concentrations (original or diluted to 50%) and total amounts (single or half-dose) of gadolinium chelate injected at different rates (1 or 0.5 mL/second). The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the abdominal aorta and of the common and external iliac arteries were calculated, and two blinded readers rated the respective image qualities.
Results: The SNR and CNR of the abdominal aorta and the common iliac artery in the 0.5 mL/second groups were statistically significantly lower than those in the 1 mL/second groups. The differences in overall image quality across the four groups were not statistically significant.
Conclusion: Half-dose MR angiography using diluted contrast medium injected at a rate of 1 mL/second depicted the abdominal aorta and its branches as clearly as using a full single dose.
Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.