Abstract
Background - Three-dimensional (3D) navigator-gated and prospectively corrected free-breathing coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) allows for submillimeter image resolution but suffers from poor contrast between coronary blood and myocardium. Data collected over >100 ms/heart beat are also susceptible to bulk cardiac and respiratory motion. To address these problems, we examined the effect of a T2 preparation prepulse (T2prep) for myocardial suppression and a shortened acquisition window on coronary definition. Methods and Results - Eight healthy adult subjects and 5 patients with confirmed coronary artery disease (CAD) underwent free-breathing 3D MRA with and without T2prep and with 120- and 60-ms data-acquisition windows. The T2prep resulted in a 123% (P<0.001) increase in contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Coronary edge definition was improved by 33% (P<0.001). Acquisition window shortening from 120 to 60 ms resulted in better vessel definition (11%; P<0.001). Among patients with CAD, there was a good correspondence with disease. Conclusions - Free-breathing, T2prep, 3D coronary MRA with a shorter acquisition window resulted in improved CNR and better coronary artery definition, allowing the assessment of coronary disease. This approach offers the potential for free-breathing, noninvasive assessment of the major coronary arteries.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 3139-3148 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Circulation |
Volume | 99 |
Issue number | 24 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 22 1999 |
Keywords
- Angiography
- Contrast media
- Imaging
- Vessels
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
- Physiology (medical)