2002 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 549-554
MR angiography (MRA) is a non-invasive technique which can provide an important information about cerebral vascular diseases such as cerebral aneurysms or occlusive lesions. As recent progress in MRA, image quality has become excellent and acquisition time has become much shorter by contribution of several technologies including MTS, TONE, and ZIP. A first-pass, contrast-enhanced 3D MR angiography with very short acquisition time is useful for AVM and AVF. This MR technique can demonstrate arteriovenous shunts as well as the feeding arteries and draining veins of the lesions. After introduction of a new multidetector helical CT scanner, it has become possible to produce high-speed CT angiography (CTA) of high quality with significantly shorter acquisition time for the intracranial and cervical vessels. The feasibility of 3D views of intracranial and cervical vessels computed from planar digital angiograms acquired with a rotational angiography system has been evaluated. In the cases with aneurysm, 3D angiography is superior to conventional DSA concerning visualization of the aneurysm architecture. 3D angiography has now become essential for embolization of the cerebral aneurysms with GDC.
