• Yousef W Nielsen, Jonas P Eiberg, Vibeke B Løgager, Marc A Hansen, Torben V Schroeder, and Henrik S Thomsen.
• Department of Radiology, Copenhagen University Hospital Herlev, Herlev Ringvej 75, DK-2730 Copenhagen, Denmark. yujwni01@heh.regionh.dk
• Acad Radiol. 2009 Jun 1; 16 (6): 654-61.

Rationale And ObjectivesWhole-body magnetic resonance angiography (WB-MRA) at 3 T with body coil acquisition has not previously been investigated. In this study, WB-MRA was performed in this manner using the blood pool contrast agent gadofosveset trisodium.Materials And MethodsEleven consecutive patients (five men, six women) with symptomatic peripheral arterial disease (two with critical limb ischemia, nine with claudication) were examined. Conventional digital subtraction angiography (DSA) of the aorta and the inflow and runoff arteries was used as the reference method. WB-MRA was performed using four slightly overlapping stations covering the arteries from the neck to the ankles. The arterial system was divided into 42 segments that were analyzed for the presence of significant arterial disease (> or =50% luminal narrowing or occlusion) by two blinded observers.ResultsSensitivities for detecting a significant arterial lesion with WB-MRA using gadofosveset as the contrast agent were 0.66 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.49-0.79) and 0.68 (95% CI, 0.52-0.81) for the two observers. Specificities were 0.82 (95% CI, 0.74-0.88) and 0.93 (95% CI, 0.87-0.96), respectively. Intermodality agreement between WB-MRA and DSA was moderate to good, with overall kappa values of 0.44 (95% CI, 0.29-0.59) and 0.63 (95% CI, 0.5-0.77) for the two observers. Interobserver agreement for WB-MRA was good, at kappa = 0.60 (95% CI, 0.50-0.71).ConclusionWB-MRA at 3 T with body coil acquisition in patients with peripheral arterial disease showed good reproducibility but only moderate to good agreement with DSA. Further assessment of the method's clinical application is warranted.

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