A preliminary study of the diagnostic performance of 3 T contrast enhanced whole-heart coronary MR angiography

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic performance of 3 T contrast-enhanced whole-heart coronary MR angiography (CE-CMRA) in patients with suspected coronary artery disease. Methods 3 T CE-CMRA was performed in 53 consecutive patients. An ECG-triggered, navigator-gated, inversion-recovery prepared, segmented gradient-echo sequence was used to acquire CE-CMRA with slow infusion of 0. 2 mmol/kg Gd-BOPTA. Using X-ray angiography as the reference, the diagnostic accuracy of the CE-CMRA in detecting significant stenosis (≥50%) was assessed based on the 9 segments of coronary artery main branches and on the 15 segments of the coronary artery, respectively. Results The CE-CMRA examinations was successfully completed in 48 patients (90%). The average acquisition time of the scan was (9. 1 ± 1.8) min. The sensitivity and specificity of CE-CMRA for detecting significant stenoses based on the 9 segments and 15 segments were 92. 2% (59/64) and 91.5% (324/354) ,82.4% (70/85)and 86. 1% (446/518) ,respectively. Conclusion 3 T CE-CMRA allows for accurate detection of coronary artery stenosis of the main coronary artery branches with high sensitivity and specificity,but is still limited in small coronary branches. Key words: Coronary disease; Magnetic resonance angiography; Contrast media