Abstract
BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of single-breath-hold whole-heart MRA with a 3-T system. Ten healthy male volunteers underwent single-breath-hold whole-heart coronary MRA at 3 T. We assessed acquisition time, scores of image quality of coronary artery (RCA: proximal, middle and distal, LAD: main, proximal, middle and distal, LCX: proximal and distal) and the visualized vessel length of RCA, LAD and LCX.FindingsMean acquisition time was 37.7 ± 5.2 sec. Coronary branch was successfully depicted in 67/80 branches (84%) in the 10 healthy volunteers with diagnostic image quality. And, the average visible RCA, LAD and LCX vessel length were 83.4 ± 22 mm and 59.6 ± 24 mm.Conclusions3-T MRI with single-breath-hold 3D whole-heart coronary MRA can yield adequate image quality. Further study is needed to evaluate the clinical benefit of this technique.
Highlights
Whole-heart coronary MR angiography (MRA) is generally carried out during free breathing with a respiratory gating method using navigator echo techniques, which track the motion of the right hemi-diaphragmatic dome
The average visible right coronary artery (RCA), LAD and LCX vessel length were 83.4 ± 22 mm and 59.6 ± 24 mm. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the clinical feasibility of single-breath-hold 3D whole-heart coronary MRA in 3-T MRI
Single-breath-hold 3D whole-heart coronary MRA has been performed at 1.5-T MRI using the steady-state free precession (SSFP) technique, the increased B1 field inhomogeneity and specific absorption rate (SAR) limit the consistency of SSFP in coronary images in 3.0-T MRI (Nezafat et al 2006; Stuber et al 2002)
Summary
Whole-heart coronary MR angiography (MRA) is generally carried out during free breathing with a respiratory gating method using navigator echo techniques, which track the motion of the right hemi-diaphragmatic dome. The major drawback of this free breathing technique is the relatively long acquisition time, ranging from 10 to 20 minutes (Sakuma et al 2005). The technic of single-breath hold technic could shorten the total scan time because it can reduce influence of respiratory motion. There were some reports about whole-heart coronary MRA with 1.5 T MRI during single breath hold (Makowski et al 2012; Okada et al 2011; Nassenstein et al 2008). Ten healthy male volunteers underwent single-breath-hold whole-heart coronary MRA at 3 T. Scores of image quality of coronary artery (RCA: proximal, middle and distal, LAD: main, proximal, middle and distal, LCX: proximal and distal) and the visualized vessel length of RCA, LAD and LCX
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