Media type: E-Article Title: Multislice dark‐blood carotid artery wall imaging: A 1.5 T and 3.0 T comparison Contributor: Koktzoglou, Ioannis; Chung, Yiu‐Cho; Mani, Venkatesh; Carroll, Timothy J.; Morasch, Mark D.; Mizsei, Gabor; Simonetti, Orlando P.; Fayad, Zahi A.; Li, Debiao imprint: Wiley, 2006 Published in: Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Language: English DOI: 10.1002/jmri.20563 ISSN: 1053-1807; 1522-2586 Keywords: Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging Origination: Footnote: Description: <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>To compare two multislice turbo spin‐echo (TSE) carotid artery wall imaging techniques at 1.5 T and 3.0 T, and to investigate the feasibility of higher spatial resolution carotid artery wall imaging at 3.0 T.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Materials and Methods</jats:title><jats:p>Multislice proton density‐weighted (PDW), T2‐weighted (T2W), and T1‐weighted (T1W) inflow/outflow saturation band (IOSB) and rapid extended coverage double inversion‐recovery (REX‐DIR) TSE carotid artery wall imaging was performed on six healthy volunteers at 1.5 T and 3.0 T using time‐, coverage‐, and spatial resolution–matched (0.47 × 0.47 × 3 mm<jats:sup>3</jats:sup>) imaging protocols. To investigate whether improved signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) at 3.0 T could allow for improved spatial resolution, higher spatial resolution imaging (0.31 × 0.31 × 3 mm<jats:sup>3</jats:sup>) was performed at 3.0 T. Carotid artery wall SNR, carotid lumen SNR, and wall‐lumen contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR) were measured.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Signal gain at 3.0 T relative to 1.5 T was observed for carotid artery wall SNR (223%) and wall‐lumen CNR (255%) in all acquisitions (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> < 0.025). IOSB and REX‐DIR images were found to have different levels of SNR and CNR (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> < 0.05) with IOSB values observed to be larger. Normalized to a common imaging time, the higher spatial resolution imaging at 3.0 T and the lower spatial resolution imaging at 1.5 T provided similar levels of wall‐lumen CNR (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = NS).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>Multislice carotid wall imaging at 3.0 T with IOSB and REX‐DIR benefits from improved SNR and CNR relative to 1.5 T, and allows for higher spatial resolution carotid artery wall imaging. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.</jats:p></jats:sec>