ZusammenfassungMorphologic changes of the large thoracic blood vessels commonly occur in pulmonary and cardiovascular disease. Detection of these changes by medical imaging can provide valuable prognostic or diagnostic information. The German National Cohort (GNC) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Study offers the unique possibility to study these vascular changes in a large population by non contrast-enhanced MR angiography (NE-MRA). The overwhelming amounts of data acquired in the GNC MR study however demand an automated approach for quantitative analysis. The aim of this proposed study is two-fold. First of all, the NE-MRA study used in the GNC MRI study will be validated with respect to diagnostic and quantitative accuracy in comparison to Computed Tomography angiography (CTA) as the gold standard. To this end, 30 patients will be examined by means of contrast enhanced CT and subsequently by NE-MRA. In the second part of the proposed study, an algorithm will be designed and implemented for the automated quantitative analysis of the NE-MRA data sets acquired in the GNC MRI study. This algorithm will be applied to 200 data sets drawn from the GNC MRI study and evaluated by comparison to manual quantitative and visual qualitative analysis of these data sets. This study shall provide the foundation for an efficient and accurate analysis of NE-MRA data with respect to epidemiological and clinical questions within the GNC MRI study.

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EinrichtungenUniversity of Freiburg, Universität Stuttgart, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen