3.0T Whole-Heart Coronary Magnetic Resonance Angiography Performed With 32-Channel Cardiac Coils

Abstract

Background— Whole-heart coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is a promising method for noninvasive, radiation-free detection and exclusion of obstructive coronary artery disease; however, the required imaging time and robustness of the technique are not yet satisfactory. We evaluated the value of whole-heart coronary MRA at 3.0T using a 32-channel cardiac coil, which reduces image-acquisition times and hence allows to increase the clinical throughput. Methods and Results— A total of 110 consecutive patients with suspected coronary artery disease referred for clinically indicated conventional coronary angiography were included in this prospective study. Acquisition of 3.0T coronary MRA data was done by using 32-channel receiver coils. An ECG-triggered, navigator-gated, inversion-recovery prepared, segmented gradient-echo sequence was used for image acquisition with an acceleration factor of 3 in the phase-encoding direction using generalized auto calibrating partially parallel acquisitions reconstruction. Acquisition of coronary MRA was successfully completed in 101 of 110 (92%) patients with average imaging time of 7.0±1.8 minutes. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of coronary MRA on a patient-based analysis were 95.9% (47/49, 95% CI, 86.0%–99.4%), 86.5% (45/52, 95% CI, 74.2%–94.4%), 87.0% (47/54, 95% CI, 75.1%–94.6%) and 95.7% (45/47, 95% CI, 85.4%–99.4%), respectively. Conclusions— Whole-heart coronary MRA at 3.0T using a 32-channel cardiac coil allows high overall accuracy for detecting significant coronary artery disease with reduced imaging time. It has potential to be a robust and alternative technique for ruling out significant coronary artery disease. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.chictr.org . Unique identifier: ChiCTR-DDT-07000121.