Contrast Enhanced MRA - Video Lesson

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to today's lesson on imaging techniques in MRI. This lesson focuses on contrast enhanced magnetic resonance angiography or MRA, in particular, t one contrast agents. Understanding how t one contrast agents work is critical for patient safety as well as setting correct sequence parameters. Let's get started. First, let's discuss contrast enhanced MRA. Instead of always relying on the flow phenomena to create contrast between blood and surrounding tissues, for some cases, we use contrast agents to help us delineate between the two. The most commonly used contrast agents are gadolinium based compounds. Gadolinium based contrast agents, when injected into the body, will alter the local magnetic environment. Gadolinium based contrast agents are t one contrast agents, meaning they affect the t one recovery time of nearby hydrogen protons. When gadolinium based contrast is injected into the bloodstream, the