comparison of non-contrast magnetic resonance angiography using inflow inversion recovery (inhance) technique and contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography in the assessment of renal arteries in patients with hypertension

Background: renal artery stenosis can cause renovascular hypertension manifesting clinically as high blood pressure. objectives: in this study, wedetermined the efficiency of non-contrast magnetic resonance angiography (nc-mra) using the inflow inversion recovery (inhance) method in the evaluation of renal arteries of hypertensive patients. patients and methods: three-dimensional (3d) contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (ce-mra) and nc-mra were used to prospectively evaluate 66 patients diagnosed with hypertension. 3d ce-mra and digital substractional angiography served as the gold standards. image quality, number of main/accessory renal arteries, and main renal artery diameters were assessed. statistical analyses were based on paired-t tests and intra-class correlation coefficients. results: of the 126 main renal and 12 accessory renal arteries reviewed in this study, nc-mra overall image quality was good or excellent in more than 89.5%. an image quality of 94% was recorded for both left and right sides with ce-mra. the differences between the 3d ce-mra and nc-mra readings for the renal artery ostium and proximal, medial, and distal segment diameters were not significant (p > 0.05). inter-reader agreement regarding all segments was excellent. 3d ce-mra was superior to nc-mra in assessing accessory renal arteries (detection ratio using nc-mra: 7/12, 58%). conclusion: nc-mra using the inhance method to image the anatomy of the renal artery provides an alternative to ce-mra in patients with hypertension.