Incidental findings found when radiologists take a 'broader' look at renal MR angiography

Radiologists need to look beyond the renal arteries when doing renal MR angiography (MRA), a study conducted at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN suggests.

The study found that 98% of patients who underwent renal MRA had one or more additional vascular or nonvascular findings.

The study included 380 patients who underwent an MRA exam. According to the study, 151 (40%) of these patients had one or more additional vascular findings not related to renal arteries. These findings included mesenteric artery stenosis or occlusion in 33% of patients, moderate to severe aortic atherosclerosis in 17% and aortic aneurysms in 7%, said James F. Glockner, MD, lead author of the study.

Two hundred twenty one (58%) had one or more non-vascular findings, with most of those being benign lesions. However, malignancies were detected in 10 patients, Dr. Glockner said.

“I think the main implication of the study is that incidental findings are common enough that we need to look for them, and that our MRA protocols should include at least a few additional sequences so that most of the incidental findings can be interpreted unambiguously without the need for another exam,” said Dr. Glockner. “The high incidence of incidental findings emphasizes the importance of performance and interpretation of these exams by physicians with training in abdominal cross-sectional imaging,” he said.