Aim : The aim of this study was to investigate the pulmonary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) imaging findings in Swyer - James syndrome (SJS) as a alternative imaging modalities.
Methods : Thirteen patients had posteroanterior inspiratory/expira-tory chest X-ray films and pulmonary MRA with SJS (6 males, 7 females) were retrospectively studied
. Gradient-echo pulmonary MRA was performed in all patients with a 1. 5
T MR unit. MRA imaging was performed in a single breath-hold during the injection of contrast media. Image analysis of the patients was performed. The results of pulmonary artery diameters and pulmonary periph-eral vasculature were compared between normal sides versus the affected sides. Statistical analysis was performed with the Student t test.
Results : The smaller pulmonary artery on the affected side with poor peripheral vasculature was observed with gadolinium-en-hanced gradient-echo MRA in all patients
. There was a significant difference between the diameters of the pulmonary arteries of the normal versus the disease sides (p< 0.0005).
Conclusion: MRA successfully depicted the small pulmonary artery with diminished peripheral vasculature in patients with SJS. This study showed the pulmonary MRA imaging could be used as a al-ternative imaging modalities in the evaluation of patient with SJS.