MR angiography: First choice for diagnosis of the arterial vascular system

Contrast medium-enhanced, 3D MR angiography enables an extensive and diagnostically accurate evaluation of arterial vessels in the neck, thorax, abdomen, and limbs. Advances in the field of MR apparatus technology and the introduction of contrast-medium enhanced MR angiographic techniques have made this development possible. Contrast medium-enhanced MR angiography combines the intravenous bolus administration of a paramagnetic contrast medium with the rapid acquisition of 3D data-sets. The possibilities for obtaining data in the throax and abdomen within one breath-hold, the resulting high contrast between vessel lumen and surrounding soft tissue as well as the inherent 31) nature of the images allow for diagnostically relevant image quality. In many centers contrast-enhanced 3D MR angiography has widely replaced the conventional digital subtraction roent-genography for the clarification of pathologies in arterial vessels. This review presents a survey of the technical background of contrast medium enhanced 3D MRA. In addition, the spectrum of indications is given and discussed on the basis of clinical examples.