Volumetric black-blood imaging of aortic dissection using T2 prepared inversion recovery

Background Aortic dissection is a life threatening condition, and the commonest presentation of the acute aortic syndrome, occurring in 80-90% of such cases. Identification of intimal tears is important to enable the success of an interventional procedure. MRI allows for black-blood contrast to depict the aortic vessel wall and intimal flap with positive contrast which help delineate tear and intimal anatomy. However, the conventional black-blood approach (double inversion recovery) is limited to single slice imaging with relatively low resolution in slice direction. In this study, we compare the usefulness of two approaches using T2 prepared inversion recovery (T2IR) and T2 prepared phase sensitive inversion recovery (T2PSIR) for volumetric high-resolution black-blood aortic imaging in healthy volunteers including a pilot study to optimize flow-independence.