• Investigative radiology · Sep 2008

    Comparative Study

    Contrast-enhanced whole-heart coronary magnetic resonance angiography at 3.0 T: comparison with steady-state free precession technique at 1.5 T.

    • Xin Liu, Xiaoming Bi, Jie Huang, Renate Jerecic, James Carr, and Debiao Li.
    • Department of Radiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA.
    • Invest Radiol. 2008 Sep 1; 43 (9): 663-8.

    ObjectivesTo compare contrast-enhanced whole-heart coronary MR angiography (MRA) at 3.0 T and noncontrast steady-state free precession coronary MRA at 1.5 T in the same volunteers.Materials And MethodsNine healthy volunteers underwent both coronary MRA using 3D FLASH with slow infusion of MultiHance at 3.0 T and 3D TrueFISP sequence at 1.5 T. Neither beta-blockers nor nitroglycerine was administered in any of the imaging sessions. The same spatial resolution and heart coverage were used at both field strengths. Acquisition time, signal-to-noise ratio of coronary blood, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between coronary blood and surrounding myocardium or connecting tissue, scores of image quality, coronary artery sharpness, and coverage of coronary segments for the 2 techniques were analyzed and statistically compared.ResultsThere were no significant differences in heart rate (68 +/- 10 vs. 63 +/- 6 beats/min, P > 0.05) and navigator efficiency (34.1% +/- 7.7% vs. 34.8% +/- 9.2%, P > 0.05) at 3.0 T and 1.5 T coronary MRA during the data acquisition. The average acquisition time of the 3.0 T coronary MRA was significantly shorter than that of the1.5 T coronary MRA (9.7 +/- 2.3 vs. 14.6 +/- 3.5, P < 0.05). The mean score of image quality and vessel sharpness at 3.0 T was similar to that at 1.5 T (2.8 +/- 1.0 vs. 3.0 +/- 1.0 and 0.63 +/- 0.15 vs. 0.61 +/- 0.13, respectively. P > 0.05). There was no significant difference between the number of visible coronary segments of the major coronary arteries at 3.0 T and 1.5 T (64/81 vs. 62/81, P > 0.05). However, the number of visible main coronary branches at 3.0 T was significantly higher than that at 1.5 T (18/54 vs. 7/54, P < 0.05). The overall signal-to-noise ratio at 3.0 T was significantly lower than that at 1.5 T (40.9 +/- 4.7 vs. 60.9 +/- 3.4, P < 0.01), whereas the overall CNR at 3.0 T was significantly higher than that at 1.5 T (35.4 +/- 3.3 vs. 28.8 +/- 6.4, P < 0.05).ConclusionContrast-enhanced whole-heart coronary MRA at 3.0 T demonstrated less acquisition time, higher CNR, and better depiction of coronary segments compared with steady-state free precession coronary MRA at 1.5 T. Patient studies are required to evaluate the clinical value of the technique.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…