• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.152-158
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• 2012

Purpose : To compare the arterial and venous detection sites of triggering methods in contrast-enhanced-MR-venography (CE-MRV) for the evaluation of intracranial venous system. Materials and Methods: 41 healthy patients underwent CE-MRV with autotriggering at either the cavernous segment of internal carotid artery with an inserted time-delay of 6 seconds (n = 20) or the superior sagittal sinus without any timedelay (n = 21). 0.1 mmol/kg gadolinium-based contrast material ($Magnevist^{(R)}$, Schering, Germany) was intravenously injected by hand injection. A sagittal fast-spoiled-gradient-echo-sequence ranging from one ear to the other was performed (TR/TE5.2/1.5, Matrix $310{\times}310$, 124 sections in the 15-cm-thick volume). 17 predefined venous structures were evaluated on all venograms by two neuroradiologists and defined as completely visible, partially visible, or none visible. Results: The rate of completely visible structures were 272 out of 323 (84%) in the arterial triggering CE-MRV and 310 out of 340 (91%) in the venous triggering CE-MRV. The venous triggering CE-MRV demonstrated an overall superior visualization of the cerebral veins than the arterial triggering CE-MRV (Fisher exact test, p < 0.006). Conclusion: CE-MRV using venous autotriggering method provides higher-quality images of the intracranial venous structures compared to that of arterial.