Simultaneous bilateral magnetic resonance imaging of the femoral arteries in peripheral arterial disease patients

Purpose: To image the femoral arteries in peripheral arterial disease (PAD) patients using a bilateral receive coil. Materials and Methods: An eight-channel surface coil array for bilateral MRI of the femoral arteries at 3T was constructed and evaluated. Results: The bilateral array enabled imaging of a 25-cm segment of the superficial femoral arteries (SFA) from the profunda to the popliteal. The array provided improved the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the periphery and similar SNR in the middle of a phantom compared to three other commercially available coils (4-channel torso, quadrature head, whole body). Multicontrast bilateral images of the in vivo SFA with 1 mm in-plane resolution made it possible to directly compare lesions in the index SFA to the corresponding anatomical site in the contralateral vessel without repositioning the patient or coil. A set of bilateral time-of-flight, T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and proton density-weighted images was acquired in a clinically acceptable exam time of ∼45 minutes. Conclusion: The developed bilateral coil is well suited for monitoring dimensional changes in atherosclerotic lesions of the SFA.