k-t BLAST and SENSE accelerated time-resolved three-dimensional phase contrast MRI in an intracranial aneurysm

The objective of this study was to investigate the performance of k-t BLAST (Broad-use Linear Acquisition Speed-up Technique) accelerated time-resolved 3D PC-MRI compared to SENSE (SENSitivity Encoding) acceleration in an in vitro and in vivo intracranial aneurysm. Non-accelerated, SENSE and k-t BLAST accelerated time-resolved 3D PC-MRI measurements were performed in vivo and in vitro. We analysed the consequences of various temporal resolutions in vitro. Both in vitro and in vivo measurements showed that the main effect of k-t BLAST was underestimation of velocity during systole. In the phantom, temporal blurring decreased with increasing temporal resolution. Quantification of the differences between the non-accelerated and accelerated measurements confirmed that in systole SENSE performed better than k-t BLAST in terms of mean velocity magnitude. In both in vitro and in vivo measurements, k-t BLAST had higher SNR compared to SENSE. Qualitative comparison between measurements showed good similarity. Comparison with SENSE revealed temporal blurring effects in k-t BLAST accelerated measurements