Bridging the boundaries : Sharing technology between clinical and preclinical MRI creates new value

In vivo vascular assessment in animal models of cerebrovascular disease is performed for several purposes, including confirmation of the model, anatomical analysis, pathophysiologic evaluation, and observation of therapeutic effects and their temporal changes. Time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography (TOF-MRA) is frequently used to evaluate the integrity of major cerebral arteries. TOF-MRA offers the advantage of selectively visualizing arteries throughout the entire brain using a simple acquisition technique that does not require exogenous tracers, making it a highly convenient experimental protocol. However, few studies have evaluated the image quality of cerebral vascular MRA in experimental animals, even in widely used laboratory species such as rats and mice. Image quality and acquisition time in cerebral vascular MRA must be appropriately optimized in animal experiments to achieve acceptable quality for the intended analyses. This article describes the process by which the author proposed a simple imaging method to obtain high-resolution cerebral vascular MRA images in rats, regardless of scanner model or magnetic field strength. This was accomplished by integrating technical concepts derived from prior clinical experience into preclinical MRI.