Measurement of common carotid artery lumen dynamics during cardiac cycle using TrueFISP cine MR imaging

Abstract

Vascular MR imaging provides detailed anatomical information of blood vessels, yielding lumen size and wall thickness measurements. However, many of the studies often specify the morphology and composition of vessel walls without examining the dynamic pulsatile properties of these vessels. In this study, the vascular dynamics of the right and left common carotid arteries throughout the whole cardiac cycle was investigated using TrueFISP cine cardiac imaging. Consistent results and area waveform patterns were observed among the normal subjects. This lumen dynamics can better describe physiological behaviour correlated with other vascular parameters, therefore has potential clinical importance in differentiating abnormalities. Furthermore, TrueFISP cine MRI produces high contrast images, allowing high accuracy in area measurements and thus waveform tracing.