Clinical usefulness of slab-selective three-dimensional magnetic resonance angiography using radial stack-of-stars acquisition and UTE sampling (STARS UTE-MRA) after treatment of cerebral aneurysms with metallic devices.

Abstract

Three-dimensional time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography (3D TOF-MRA) is widely used for follow-up after treatment of cerebral aneurysms, but signal loss around metallic devices often limits evaluation of the parent vessel. We clinically evaluated slab-selective three-dimensional magnetic resonance angiography using radial stack-of-stars acquisition and UTE sampling (STARS UTE-MRA) in 89 patients after coil embolization and surgical clipping. STARS UTE-MRA was compared with conventional 3D TOF-MRA using full width at half-minimum (FWHM) of signal-intensity profiles and visual scores assigned by four readers. STARS UTE-MRA showed significantly smaller FWHM values and higher visual scores than 3D TOF-MRA for coils 10-15 mm in long-axis length and for all clip-length subgroups, whereas no clear advantage was observed in smaller coil cases. STARS UTE-MRA may be a useful supplementary sequence for postoperative follow-up, particularly in aneurysms treated with larger coil or surgical clips.