Advances in preoperative MR angiography for lower limb arterial diseases in diabetic patients

The incidence of diabetes has been increasing with each passing year and diabetic peripheral vascular disease has been one of the serious complications, which increasingly threatens the numerous sufferers' health. The preoperative imaging evaluation measures for the peripheral vascular disease include Doppler ultrasound (DUS), CT angiography (CTA), MR angiography(MRA), digital subtraction angiography (DSA). In the situation of today that both the imaging equipments and imaging technology are developing swiftly, it is necessary to make an evaluation of these imaging ways. This paper aims to discuss the clinical value, the limitation and the progresses of the above devices, and to summarize the advantages and the recent advances of preoperative MR angiography used for observing lower limb arterial diseases in diabetic patients. Medical researches have showed that MRA, as a non-invasive method with almost the same high diagnostic accuracy as DSA, is an ideal technique for making preoperative evaluation and long-term postoperative checkup. (authors)