TABLE 1.

Carotid Imaging Parameters

Parameters	Black-Blood PD	Black-Blood T2W	Black-Blood T1W	TOF MRA
Contrast	No	No	No/yes	No
Sequence*	FSE	FSE	FSE	SPGR
Image mode	2D	2D	2D	3D
Scan plane	Axial	Axial	Axial	Axial
TR, msec	3000	3000	800	29
TE, msec	10–13.1	60–66	8.8	2.1
FOV, cm	14 × 14	14 × 14	14 × 14	14 × 14
Matrix size	256 × 256	256 × 256	256 × 256	256 × 256
Resolution, mm2	0.55 × 0.55	0.55 × 0.55	0.55 × 0.55	0.55 × 0.55
Slice thickness, mm	2	2	2	2
No. slices	12	12	12	24
Blood suppression†	MDIR	MDIR	QIR	Saturation–veins
No. excitations	2	2	2	1
Special parameters	Echo train 12; 8 slices/TR	Echo train 12; 8 slices/TR	Echo train 8	Flip angle 20 degree
Fat suppression	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Scan time, min		4‡	6/5/6§	3

^*GE acronyms.

^†Special blood-suppression techniques MDIR and QIR are performed with custom-designed software.

^‡PD and T2W sequences were acquired using a shared echo technique (double-echo imaging).

^§The scan time of black-blood T1W corresponds to precontrast acquisition/delay/postcontrast acquisition.