RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: HYPR flow is a 3D dynamic contrast-enhanced MRA technique providing isotropic sub-millimetre resolution with half-second temporal resolution. We compared HYPR flow and time-resolved imaging of contrast kinetics (TRICKS) MRA for the characterization of cerebral arteriovenous malformations (cAVMs), using catheter DSA as reference. METHODS: Twenty-two patients underwent HYPR flow and TRICKS MRA within 15 days of DSA. HYPR flow and TRICKS datasets were reviewed separately by two readers for image quality, Spetzler-Martin grade, venous ectasia, and deep venous drainage. RESULTS: Image quality was better for HYPR flow than for TRICKS (narrower full width at half maximum; larger arterial diagnostic window; greater number of arterial frames, P ≤ 0.05). Using HYPR flow, inter-reader agreement was excellent for all cAVM characteristics. The agreement with DSA for the overall Spetzler-Martin grade was excellent for HYPR flow (ICC = 0.96 and 0.98, depending on the reader) and TRICKS (ICC = 0.82 and 0.95). In comparison to TRICKS, HYPR flow showed higher concordance with DSA for the identification of venous ectasia and deep venous drainage. CONCLUSION: Owing to an excellent agreement with DSA with respect to depiction of the vascular architecture of cAVMs, HYPR flow could be useful for the non-invasive characterization of cAVMs. KEY POINTS: ⢠Dynamic MRA is used for cerebral AVM depiction and follow-up ⢠HYPR flow is a new, highly-resolved dynamic MRA sequence ⢠HYPR flow provides whole brain coverage ⢠HYPR flow provides excellent agreement with the Spetzler-Martin grade ⢠Compared to TRICKS MRA, HYPR flow improves cerebral AVM characterization.