Magnetic Resonance Angiography to Direct Treatment for Lower Extremity Artery Disease

The conventional angiography technique used to image patients’ arteries is an invasive, often painful procedure in which a needle is introduced and contrast dye injected into the artery. Angiography examinations can have significant complications, including:

• bleeding, swelling, and bruising around the puncture site
• infection
• damage to the heart and/or blood vessels
• blood clots

MR Angiography

NYU’s Division of Vascular Surgery pioneered the use of noninvasive magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) to image blood vessels in the human body. A MRA uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to produce detailed pictures of the blood vessels for detection and diagnosis of blood clots and artery and vein diseases. MRA is a painless procedure that eliminates the need for needle puncture or dye injection. MRA has become an accepted method of vascular imaging, largely due to the innovative work done at NYU.

Other Noninvasive Methods

NYU’s vascular surgeons are currently developing newer techniques, and research continues in the area of minimally invasive or noninvasive imaging of blood vessels to plan surgical intervention.