Intracranial aneurysms treated with Guglielmi detachable coils: imaging follow-up with contrast-enhanced MR angiography.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To compare the utility of contrast-enhanced MR Angiography (CE-MRA) with digital subtraction angiography (DSA) after endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms with Guglielmi detachable coils. METHODS From April 1999 to August 2002, 106 patients with 107 aneurysms treated by endovascular coiling using Guglielmi detachable coils underwent simultaneous DSA and CE-MRA at follow-up (mean: 12.9 range: 5 to 27 months). DSA was performed as the standard reference. MR angiographic images were analyzed independently by 2 senior radiologists (J.-Y.G., S.C.) and DSA by a third radiologist (X.L.). Findings were assigned to 1 of 3 categories: complete obliteration (class 1), residual neck (class 2) and residual aneurysm (class 3). RESULTS DSA at follow-up demonstrated 65 (60.6%) complete obliterations (group 1), 21 (19.7%) residual necks (group 2) and 21 (19.7%) residual aneurysms (group 3). One patient (0.9%) experienced aneurysm rebleed during the follow-up period. Among 101 assessable imaging comparisons, interobserver agreement was determined to be very good for CE-MRA (kappa=0.96) with only 4 discrepancies between both examiners. Comparison between CE-MRA and DSA showed an excellent agreement between techniques (kappa=0.93). Of the 21 with residual necks described on DSA, 20 were seen on CE-MRA. CE-MRA detected all 19 residual aneurysms. CONCLUSIONS CE-MRA after selective embolization of intracranial aneurysm is useful and comparable to DSA in the assessment of aneurysmal recanalization either as residual neck or aneurysmal sac.