Fast Inversion Recovery Magnetic Resonance Angiography (FIR-MRA) of the Intracranial Arteries

Introduction –3D time-of-flight (TOF) [1] provides excellent vessel-to-background contrast in intracranial MRA, but is subject to inplane saturation and incomplete venous suppression. Spin-labeling [2-3] may be used to perform MRA [4-5], but typically requires long inversion intervals with inherently long acquisition times. We have developed a 3D fast inversion recovery MRA (FIR-MRA) that uses spin-labeling technique with reasonably short acquisition time. Initial results demonstrate superior vessel conspicuity, background suppression and venous suppression with 3D FIR-MRA compared to 3D TOF [6]. The purpose of this work is to perform a detailed comparison of FIR-MRA to TOF, and to demonstrate the clinical utility of FIR-MRA.