Peripheral arterial imaging with a Continuously Moving Table Time-of-Flight View-Sharing technique

Introduction Time-of-Flight MR Angiography (TOF MRA) is a commonly used non contrast enhanced technique for vessel visualization. To extend the spatial coverage of TOF arteriography, this study addresses the combination of axial 2D TOF imaging and Continuously Moving Table (CMT) acquisitions for imaging the peripheral arteries. Since arterial blood flow is highly pulsatile in the periphery, inflow in 2D axial slices and thus blood signal intensity in TOF images depends on acquisition time relative to the cardiac cycle resulting in unwanted signal variations in the final angiogram. To compensate for this artefact, a new CMT gradient echo sequence has been designed based on repeated acquisition of central kspace within the cardiac cycle for each slice position. Efficient suppression of pulsatile flow artifacts was achieved by view sharing and background signal was suppressed via image subtraction.