Semiquantitative assessment of first-pass renal perfusion at 1.5 T: comparison of 2D saturation recovery sequences with and without parallel imaging.

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and reliability of measurements performed with true fast imaging with steady-state free precession (FISP) and turbo fast low-angle shot (FLASH) sequences with parallel imaging compared with those obtained with turbo FLASH sequences without parallel imaging in first-pass renal perfusion MRI.SUBJECTS AND METHODS. The subjects in this prospective study were 15 healthy men who volunteered to undergo MRI for acquisition of renal perfusion measurements. Imaging was performed at 1.5 T with the following three techniques after administration of gadobenate dimeglumine at 4 mL/s: saturation recovery (SR) turbo FLASH sequences without parallel imaging, SR turbo FLASH sequences with parallel imaging, and SR true FISP sequences. The spatial resolution was 2.3 × 2.6 × 8 mm with a temporal resolution of four slices per second (turbo FLASH without parallel imaging and true FISP) or six slices per second (turbo FLASH with parallel imaging). The semiquantit...