Dark Blood Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Visualizing Inflamed Intracranial Arteries

Start with a human patient with cerebral vasculitis, which causes inflammation and increased permeability of blood vessels in the brain.

Place the patient's head inside the radiofrequency, or RF, coil of a magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, machine.

Initiate magnetic resonance angiography, or MRA, which uses RF pulses to image blood flow.

Protons in flowing blood generate strong signals, making blood vessels appear bright, while weak signals from stationary tissues result in a dark background.

Switch to T1-weighted dark blood imaging, which employs inversion RF pulses to suppress signals from blood and fat.

A subsequent RF pulse excites protons in the remaining tissues to produce signals, enabling visualization of vessel walls.

To differentiate between inflamed and normal vessel walls, intravenously administer contrast agents that accumulate in inflamed vessel walls with increased permeability.

Repeat the imaging sequence to identify the contrast-enhanced inflamed vessel walls.