Calf muscles imaged at BOLD MR: correlation with TcPO2 and flowmetry measurements during ischemia and reactive hyperemia--initial experience.

Purpose: To prospectively compare the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance (MR) signal intensity of calf muscle during ischemia and reactive hyperemia with laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) and transcutaneous oxygen pressure (TcPo2) measurements, two parameters routinely used to evaluate peripheral arterial occlusive disease.

Materials And Methods: The study was institutional review board approved; all volunteers gave informed consent. Fifteen healthy volunteers (eight male, seven female; mean age, 33.

Blood oxygenation level-dependent magnetic resonance imaging of the skeletal muscle in patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease.

Background: Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used to measure T2* changes in skeletal muscle tissue of healthy volunteers. The BOLD effect is assumed to primarily reflect changes in blood oxygenation at the tissue level. We compared the calf muscle BOLD response of patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) to that of an age-matched non-PAOD group during postischemic reactive hyperemia.

Infragenual cuff-compression reduces venous contamination in contrast-enhanced MR angiography of the calf.

Purpose: To reduce venous contamination at the calf level in three-dimensional contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) by applying continuous infragenual cuff-compression.

Materials And Methods: Ten patients with clinically relevant peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) underwent dynamic three-dimensional CE-MRA of the calf. Six consecutive measurements were acquired with the first measurement serving as mask.