Soonchunhyang Med Sci.  2024 Jun;30(1):23-31. 10.15746/sms.24.004.

High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Magnetic Resonance Angiography with a Volume Rendering Algorithm for Detection of Unruptured Aneurysms: Correlations with Digital Subtraction Angiography

• Lee A

• KMID: 2556924
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.15746/sms.24.004

Abstract

Objective
We investigated the diagnostic accuracy of high-resolution magnetic resonance angiography (HR-MRA) with volume rendering (VR) post-processing techniques for the detection of cerebral aneurysms compared with conventional MRA (C-MRA) using digital subtraction angiography (DSA) as the gold standard.
Methods
HR-MRA was performed for 51 possible aneurysms of 38 patients on C-MRA. For each possible aneurysm, readers recorded their level of confidence on a 5-point scale. All patients underwent DSA, which was used as the standard of reference. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and the area under the ROC curves (AUC) were used to determine the effectiveness of C-MRA and HR-MRA in detecting cerebral aneurysm with and without VR algorithm. The increased discriminative value was examined by calculation of Net Reclassification Index (NRI) and Integrated Discrimination Improvement (IDI) index.
Results
DSA revealed 37 aneurysms in 26 patients. In aneurysm-based analysis, HR-MRA showed higher diagnostic accuracy than C-MRA, and increased diagnostic accuracy on adding VR (C-MRA vs. HR-MRA, P< 0.01; C-MRA with VR vs. HR-MRA with VR, P< 0.01, respectively). The differences in AUC, IDI (19.38%, Z= 3.18, P< 0.01) and NRI (46.3%, Z= 6.32, P< 0.01), on adding VR to the HR-MRA, were also statistically significant. The application of HR-MRA with VR increased the detection rate of aneurysms less than 3 mm.
Conclusion
The application of HR-MRA with VR algorithm improves diagnostic performance for the detection of intracranial aneurysms, especially when the aneurysm is less than 3 mm. Clinically, HR-MRA with VR algorithm could facilitate the accurate differentiation of aneurysms from infundibula and prevent unnecessary, invasive procedure before aneurysmal rupture.

Keyword

Angiography; Aneurysm; Magnetic resonance