Reliability and accuracy of time-resolved contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography in hypervascular spinal metastases prior embolization

ConclusionsTR-CE-MRA can reliably differentiate hypervascular from non-hypervascular SM and thereby avoid futile IA-DSAs. However, TR-CE-MRA was not able to evaluate the vascular supply of the spinal cord at the target levels, thus limiting its scope as a pretherapeutic assessment tool.Key Points• TR-CE-MRA aids in distinguishing hypervascular from non-hypervascular spinal metastases.• TR-CE-MRA could avoid one-quarter of patients referred for HSM embolization to undergo futile conventional angiography.• TR-CE-MRA’s spatial resolution is insufficient to replace IA-DSA in the pretherapeutic assessment of the spinal cord vascular anatomy.
Source: European Radiology - Category: Radiology Source Type: research