Magnetic resonance angiography of the carotid arteries: comparison of unenhanced and contrast enhanced techniques.

Objective: To compare different techniques for carotid imaging including contrast-enhanced, unenhanced and dynamic techniques to find an alternative to contrast-enhanced MRA.

Methods: 43 patients referred for imaging of the carotids were enrolled in this IRB-approved study. Imaging included dark-blood, time-of-flight, ECG-gated SSFP and dynamic and static contrast-enhanced MRA.

Are you ready?--lessons learned from the Fort Hood shooting in Texas.

On November 5, 2009, a US Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire with one or more handguns, killing 12 military personnel and one civilian at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. The most severely wounded casualties were transported to Scott and White Memorial Hospital, a Level I trauma center and tertiary care teaching hospital in Temple, Texas associated with the Texas A&M University College of Medicine. Ten victims arrived in a 1-h period with another two arriving in the second hour, necessitating an emergency response to a mass casualty event.

Brain MRI with single-dose (0.1 mmol/kg) Gadobutrol at 1.5 T and 3 T: comparison with 0.15 mmol/kg Gadoterate meglumine.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to evaluate the efficacy of a single dose of gadobutrol (0.1 mmol/kg of body weight) compared with that of a substantially higher dose of gadoterate meglumine (0.15 mmol/kg of body weight) in a rat brain tumor model at 1.

Diffusion weighted imaging: a comprehensive evaluation of a fast spin echo DWI sequence with BLADE (PROPELLER) k-space sampling at 3 T, using a 32-channel head coil in acute brain ischemia.

Purpose: To evaluate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and diagnostic quality of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) using a fast spin echo (FSE) sequence with BLADE k-space trajectory at 3 T in combination with a 32-channel head coil. The scan was compared with a standard spin echo (SE) echo-planar imaging (EPI) DWI and a high resolution SE EPI DWI sequence.

Material And Methods: Fourteen patients with acute brain ischemia were included in this Institutional Review Board approved study.

Diffusion-weighted imaging in patients with acute brain ischemia at 3 T: current possibilities and future perspectives comparing conventional echoplanar diffusion-weighted imaging and fast spin echo diffusion-weighted imaging sequences using BLADE (PROPELLER).

Objectives: To compare diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) based on a fast spin echo (FSE) sequence using BLADE (PROPELLER) with conventional DWI-echoplanar imaging (EPI) techniques at 3 T and to demonstrate the influence of hardware developments on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with these techniques using 12- and 32-channel head coils.

Materials And Methods: Fourteen patients with brain ischemia were evaluated with DWI using EPI and FSE BLADE sequences, with a 12-channel head coil, in the axial plane and 1 additional plane (either sagittal or coronal). SNR and CNR were calculated from region-of-interest measurements.