Equilibrium-phase high spatial resolution contrast-enhanced MR angiography at 1.5T in preoperative imaging for perforator flap breast reconstruction MATERIAL AND METHODS Subjects Twenty-three consecutive patients (all female, 48.1 ± 9.7 years) scheduled to undergo 36 free flap procedures for breast reconstruction were included between January 2008 and September 2009. Exclusion criteria were contra- indications for MRI (i.e. claustrophobia, known gadolinium based contrast agent allergy, and an estimated glomular filtration rate below 30 mL/kg/1.73 m2). The institutional medical ethics committee of the University Hospital of Maastricht and Maastricht University (METC azM/UM) approved the study and all subjects gave written informed consent before inclusion. All patients underwent preoperative CE-MRA of the abdominal wall and pelvic region to determine the quality and location of the DIEA perforator branches. MRI protocol Examinations were performed using a 1.5-T commercially available system (Intera, Philips Medical Systems, Best, The Netherlands). For signal reception we used a 4-element phased-array parallel imaging-capable body coil with craniocaudal coverage of approximately 25 cm (Philips Medical Systems, Best, The Netherlands). Subjects were imaged in the supine position. The entire examination lasted less than 30 minutes. Imaging parameters for all acquisitions are listed in table 7.1. Survey. A non-enhanced time-of-flight (TOF) scan was acquired to prescribe the imaging volumes of interest for CE-MRA. A turbo field echo (TFE) pulse sequence with a 180° inversion prepulse was used to suppress stationary tissues. One-hundred axial slices were acquired with 3.0-mm slice thickness and 0-mm interslice gap, and an inferiorly concatenated saturation band. The standard quadrature body coil was used for signal transmission and reception. For positioning of the 3D CE-MRA volume a maximum intensity projection (MIP) was generated in 3 orthogonal directions. 116
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