The application of highly accelerated MR acquisition techniques to imaging the peripheral vasculature

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a major health problem worldwide. Due to its high prevalence as well as the potential for effective treatment it is critical to diagnose and characterize PAD. Methods based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have long been under study for assessing the vascular system but have been limited because of long scan times and limited spatial resolution. However, just in the last several years a number of techniques have allowed major improvements in the time vs. spatial resolution tradeoff. In this work it is shown that the combination of acquisition techniques, coil technology, and acceleration methods now allows imaging the peripheral vasculature with 1 mm isotropic resolution with acquisitions that can capture the arterial phase of transit of contrast-enhanced blood. Special purpose receiver coil arrays are also used which retain high SNR in spite of the high acceleration. In vivo results are presented to illustrate the general applicability of the method.