Purpose: To evaluate the usefulness of three-dimensional, phase-contrast magnetic resonance (MR) angiography performed with cardiac synchronization in the assessment of renal arteries.
Materials and methods: Thirty-eight patients (24 men, 14 women) underwent three-dimensional, phase-contrast MR angiography without gating and with systolic and diastolic gating. Conventional angiography was used as the standard of reference.
Results: The sensitivity for the detection of all stenoses (> 0%) was 93% with systolic, 92% with diastolic, and 77% without gating. However, there was no difference between the three techniques in the diagnosis of hemodynamically significant stenoses (> 50%). The mean arterial length depicted was significantly better with diastolic gating than with either of the other techniques (P < .0001). Vascular disease was significantly overestimated with systolic gating relative to estimation without (P = .030) or with diastolic (P = .008) gating.
Conclusion: Three-dimensional, phase-contrast MR angiography provides good image quality and enables assessment of renovascular disease. Cardiac gating has limited improvement of these results.