Kidneys, heart emerge clearly with 3T MRA

Two studies have found that MR angiography at 3T produces quality images of the kidneys and excellent cardiac cine images.

Radiologist Dr. Michael Fenchel and colleagues from Eberhard-Karls University in Tuebingen, Germany, examined 11 healthy volunteers using a high parallel imaging technique with a prototype 32-element phased-array coil and a 3T scanner. The investigators found high image quality of the kidneys in nine of 11 volunteers, with good overall interobserver agreement (Invest Radiol 2006:41[9]:697-703).

The same team performed cardiac cine imaging at 3T successfully on eight volunteers using this parallel imaging technique (Invest Radiol 2006;41[8]:601-608).

Using a large number of coil elements with a favorable sensitivity profile supports faster image acquisition, with high diagnostic image quality even for high parallel imaging factors, the researchers said.