Technical Principles of MR Angiography Methods

Magnetic resonance provides a wide variety of possibilities for arterial and venous blood vessel imaging in all vascular territories. This article provides a brief review of the technical principles of MR angiography. The first section is dedicated to non–contrast-enhanced angiography techniques and includes several distinct approaches: time-of-flight, phase contrast, triggered angiography non–contrast-enhanced, and balanced steady-state free precession. The second section relates to the contrast-enhanced and time-resolved contrast-enhanced MR angiography methods. The latest technical developments in MR imaging hardware, sequences and software, coil technology, and reconstruction capability allow dynamic MR angiography performance similar to CT angiography, without risks of iodine contrast agent and ionizing radiation exposure.