Lisette van Dam

Magnetic resonance thrombus imaging in portal vein thrombosis 6 101 3D T1 TFE sequence combined with ProSET technique and the Dixon technique added to a 3D T1 Fast Field Echo sequence (3D T1 Dixon FFE) showed good contrast resolution between the liver parenchyma and intrahepatic veins. Moreover, a high signal intensity was acquired from the coagulation tube ( Figure 1 ). These two sequences were thus the most promising for portal vein imaging and were evaluated in three PVT patients ( Table 1 ). 3D TSE SPAIR, with and without the black-blood technique, and THRIVE sequence were shown to be suboptimal for abdominal direct thrombus imaging, because of a high signal intensity from blood flow in splanchnic veins and intestines despite saturation slab and low image quality due to motion artifacts. These sequences were excluded for further analysis. Figure 1A-D. MR images of the abdomen in coronal view of a healthy volunteer with a coagulation tube attached to the abdomen; A and C. 3D T1 TFE images at two levels showing a low signal intensity in intrahepatic veins and good contrast resolution between the liver parenchyma and veins. High signal intensity is present in the coagulation tube with clotted blood (arrow). B. and D. 3D T1 Dixon FFE (water-only) images at two levels showing a low signal intensity in the intrahepatic veins and intermediate signal intensity in the coagulation tube (arrow).