Coronary Artery Imaging Using Three-Dimensional Breath-Hold Steady-State Free Precession with Two-Dimensional Iterative Partial Fourier Reconstruction

Purpose: To assess the feasibility of using a two-dimensional partial Fourier (PF) reconstruction scheme to reduce the acquisition time of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of coronary arteries. Materials and Methods: Symmetric k-space data sets of coronary arteries were collected in seven volunteers using a three-dimensional breath-hold steady-state free precession (SSFP) sequence. Partial, asymmetric k-space data sets were generated by removing 25% of the data in the readout direction and 25% of the data in the phase encoding direction. The missing data were then estimated using a two-dimensional projection-onto-convex-sets (POCS) algorithm or filled with zeroes. Images were reconstructed from the full data set, the PF data set, and the zero-filled (ZF) data set, respectively. Coronary artery sharpness was evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: Coronary artery sharpness in PF images was comparable to that in full k-space images and significantly better than that in ZF images. Conclusion: Two-dimensional POCS PF reconstruction is a potentially useful technique for reducing acquisition time or improving spatial resolution for breath-hold coronary MR angiography.