MR venography of the human brain using susceptibility weighted imaging at very high field strength

P. Koopmans, R. Manniesing, W. Niessen, M. Viergever and M. Barth

Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine 2008;21(1-2):149-158.

DOI PMID Cited by ~122

OBJECTIVE: We investigate the implications of high magnetic field strength on MR venography based on susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) and estimate the optimum echo time to obtain maximum contrast between blood and brain tissue. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We measured tissue contrast and [Formula: see text] relaxation times at 7 T of gray matter, white matter, and venous blood in vivo. RESULTS: [Formula: see text] relaxation times of gray matter, white matter, and venous blood in vivo yielded 32.9 +/- 2.3, 27.7 +/- 4.3, and 7.4 +/- 1.4 ms, respectively. Optimum TE was found to be 15 ms which is supported by theoretical considerations. Using this optimum TE, we acquired 3D high resolution datasets with a large volume coverage in a short measurement time that show very detailed microanatomical structures of the human brain such as intracortical veins and laminar cortical substructures. CONCLUSIONS: By applying optimised vessel filters (vesselness filter and vessel enhancing diffusion) whole brain MR venograms can be obtained at 7 T with a significantly reduced measurement time compared to 3 T.