Abstract 117: A Six Minute MRI Protocol for Evaluation of Acute Ischemic Stroke: Pushing the Boundaries

Purpose: Multimodal cerebrovascular CT and MR can now provide information about tissue viability, site of occlusion, and collateral status in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). If MRI is to compete with CT for evaluation of AIS, there is need for further improvements in acquisition speed. The purpose of this study was to establish the feasibility of a fast MR protocol with a 6 minute acquisition time for evaluation of AIS. Methods: Patients with suspicion of AIS and absence of MRI contraindications were prospectively enrolled. A combination of echo-planar imaging (EPI) and parallel acquisition technique were used on a 3T MR scanner to accelerate the acquisition time. The imaging protocol included: DWI (1 min), EPI-FLAIR (52 sec), EPI-GRE (50 sec), contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) of the entire supra-aortic arteries (20 sec), and DSC perfusion (2 min). Using a modified 2-phase contrast injection scheme, high spatial resolution CE-MRA of the supra-aortic arteries was performed just before D...