Black-Blood Multicontrast Imaging of Carotid Arteries with DANTE-prepared 2D and 3D MR Imaging

Purpose: To prospectively compare the black-blood (BB) imaging efficiency of a delay alternating with nutation for tailored excitation (DANTE) preparation module with conventional double inversion-recovery (DIR) and motion-sensitive driven equilibrium (MSDE) preparation modules and to introduce a new three-dimensional (3D) T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging sequence. Materials and Methods: Carotid artery wall imaging was performed in 10 healthy volunteers and 15 patients in accordance with an institutional review board-approved protocol. Two-dimensional (2D) turbo spin-echo (TSE) and 3D fast low-angle shot (FLASH) sequences served as readout modules. DANTE-prepared T1-, T2-, and proton density-weighted 2D TSE images, as well as T1- weighted 3D DANTE-prepared FLASH (hereafter, 3D DASH) images, were acquired in the region of the carotid artery bifurcation. For comparison, 2D DIR-prepared, 2D MSDE-prepared multicontrast TSE, and 3D MSDE-prepared FLASH (hereafter, 3D MERGE) MR images were also acquired. The effective contrast-to-noise ratio (CNReff) per unit time was calculated for all sequences. Paired t tests were performed to test within-group differences in vessel wall CNReff. Results: The CNReff of DANTE-prepared T1-, T2-, and proton density-weighted sequences was 27.3, 14.7, and 25.7 mm(-1)min-(1/2), respectively; this represented an improvement of approximately 25%-100% (P < .05) when compared with the CNReff attained with existing methods. The 3D DASH technique proved to be a fast (< 2 seconds per section) and high-spatial-resolution (0.6 mm isotropic) BB technique with higher (75%-100% improvement, P < .001) signal-to-noise ratio efficiency than the 3D MERGE technique. Conclusion: The DANTE-prepared multicontrast 2D BB technique is a promising new tool for MR imaging of carotid artery walls. Additionally, the 3D DASH sequence enables 3D high-spatial-resolution fast T1- weighted imaging of carotid artery walls. (C)RSNA, 2014