Enhancing reliability in TOF-MRA: minimizing spin-dephasing effects and improving fat suppression

Motivation: Clinicians express concerns about false-positive findings, leading to uncertainties in the reliable interpretation of TOF-MRA. Goal(s): This study focuses on improving the reliability of TOF-MRA for cerebrovascular imaging. Approach: By incorporating a small flip-angle spatially-selective fat-suppression and utilizing the shortest echo-time, signal loss is minimized, and uniform fat-suppression is achieved. Results: The results, compared to conventional protocols, demonstrate superior quality and reliability by reducing spin-dephasing and achieving uniform fat-suppression without compromising blood signal quality or requiring extensive post-processing. This approach effectively mitigates the risk of false-positive findings and overestimation of stenosis, potentially establishing it as a more effective routine clinical examination for MRA. Impact: By improving the reliability of TOF-MRA through optimized fat-suppression and echo-time reduction, it enhances the accuracy of evaluating cerebrovascular abnormalities. This advancement enables clinicians to have greater confidence in interpreting TOF-MRA images and reduces the risk of false-positive findings.