Evaluation of semiautomated internal carotid artery stenosis quantification from 3-dimensional contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiograms.

Rationale And Objectives: The performance of a semiautomatic technique for internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis quantification of the internal carotid artery in contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography was evaluated.

Materials And Methods: The degree of stenosis of 52 ICAs was quantified by measuring the cross-sectional area along the center lumen line. This was performed both by 3 independent observers and the semiautomated method.

Semiautomatic segmentation and stenosis quantification of 3D contrast-enhanced MR angiograms of the internal carotid artery.

A technique is presented for the segmentation and quantification of stenosed internal carotid arteries (ICAs) in 3D contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA). Segmentation with sub-pixel accuracy of the ICA is achieved via level-set techniques in which the central axis serves as the initialization. The central axis is determined between two user-defined points, and minimal user interaction is required.

Level-set-based artery-vein separation in blood pool agent CE-MR angiograms.

Blood pool agents (BPAs) for contrast-enhanced (CE) magnetic-resonance angiography (MRA) allow prolonged imaging times for higher contrast and resolution. Imaging is performed during the steady state when the contrast agent is distributed through the complete vascular system. However, simultaneous venous and arterial enhancement in this steady state hampers interpretation.

Blood pool contrast-enhanced MRA: improved arterial visualization in the steady state.

Blood pool agents (BPAs) for contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) allow prolonged imaging during the steady state when the agent is distributed through the complete vascular system. This increases both the spatial resolution and the contrast resolution. However, simultaneous venous and arterial enhancement hampers interpretation.