[MRI of pulmonary embolism]

Abstract

Recent technical developments have substantially improved the potential of MRI for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. On the MR scanner side this includes the development of short magnets and dedicated whole-body MRI systems, which allow a comprehensive evaluation of pulmonary embolism and deep venous thrombosis in a single exam. The introduction of parallel imaging has substantially improved the spatial and temporal resolution of pulmonary MR angiography. By combining time-resolved pulmonary perfusion MRI with high-resolution pulmonary MRA a sensitivity and specificity of over 90% is achievable, which is comparable to the accuracy of CTA. Thus, for certain patient groups, such as patients with contraindications to iodinated contrast media and young women with a low clinical probability for pulmonary embolism, MRI can be considered as a first-line imaging tool for the assessment of pulmonary embolism.