Delayed contrast-enhanced MRI of the aortic wall in Takayasu's arteritis: initial experience.

OBJECTIVE: Delayed contrast-enhanced MRI is increasingly being used for cardiac viability imaging. Takayasu's arteritis is a rare inflammatory disorder of unknown cause that affects the aorta, its major branches, and the pulmonary artery; it is characterized by inflammation and fibrosis in the arterial wall. We report our initial experience with seven patients (six women, one man; age range, 25-62 years) with delayed (20 min) gadolinium-enhanced MRI (inversion recovery prepared gated fast gradient-echo pulse sequence) in patients with known Takayasu's arteritis.

CONCLUSION: Patients with Takayasu's arteritis (particularly those with abnormal laboratory values) have evidence of delayed hyper-enhancement on delayed contrast-enhanced MRI. Thus, delayed contrast-enhanced MRI might be a useful technique to identify inflammation in arterial wall.