Preliminary study of 3.0 T contrast-enhanced whole heart coronary MR angiography using 32-channel coils with high acceleration factor

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of 3.0 T contrast enhanced (CE) whole heart coronary MRA ( CE MRA ) using 32-channel coils with high acceleration factor. Methods Sixty patients with suspected coronary artery disease who were scheduled for coronary angiography (CAG)underwent CE CMRA at 3.0 T MRI scanner. A 32-channel receiver coil was used for data acquisition. For image acquisition, an ECG-triggered, navigator-gated, inversion-recovery prepared, segmented gradient-echo sequence was used with an acceleration factor of three in the phase-encoding direction using GRAPPA reconstruction. Gd-BOPTA (0.15 mmol/kg body weight) was intravenously administered at a rate of 0. 3 ml/s. The diagnostic accuracy in detecting significant stenoses ( ≥50% of vessel lumen) was evaluated using χ2 test with X-ray angiography as the reference. Results Whole-heart CE CMRA was successfully completed in 56 patients who were scheduled for CAG. The averaged imaging time was ( 6. 0 ± 1.3 ) min.3.0 T CE CMRA using 32 channel coils correctly identified significant CAD in 28 patients and correctly ruled out CAD in 23 patients. The sensitivity and specificity were 93. 3% and 88.5% respectively.Conclusion Combined with dedicated 32-channel coils, 3.0 T CE CMRA allows significant reduction in imaging speed and reduced dose of the contrast agent. These improvements resulted in substantially improved overall accuracy of CE CMRA in detecting coronary artery disease. Key words: Magnetic resonance angiography; Coronary disease; Contrast media