Magnetic resonance-guided placement of aortic stents grafts: feasibility with real-time magnetic resonance fluoroscopy.

PURPOSE

The artifact behavior of different aortic stent-grafts was evaluated with real-time magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and the feasibility of real-time MR-guided stent-graft placement in the abdominal aorta was tested.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Seven different stent-grafts and their deployment systems were analyzed in an in vitro setting regarding their artifacts on different real-time MR images with cartesian, spiral, and radial k-space filling. The device and the real-time sequence with the fewest artifacts were used for an in vivo study in a swine model. In four animals, a straight aortic stent-graft was placed in the infrarenal abdominal aorta under real-time MR guidance. Results were controlled with MR angiography, multislice spiral computed tomography, and digital subtraction angiography.

RESULTS

The in vitro study proved only one of the seven stent grafts (including deployment systems) to be suitable for real-time MR-guided intervention. MR-guided placement of the stent-grafts was possible in all animals. In one animal, the stent-graft dislocated during withdrawal of the deployment system as a result of a mismatch between stent-graft diameter and size of the infrarenal aorta.

CONCLUSION

Real-time MR-guided placement of stent-grafts in the abdominal aorta with use of commercially available standard instruments is feasible. However, for clinical use, dedicated devices and deployment systems producing less artifacts are required.