• Nikolaos V Tsekos, Pamela K Woodard, Glenn J Foster, Pavlos Moustakidis, Terry L Sharp, Pilar Herrero, and Robert J Gropler.
• Cardiovascular Imaging Laboratory, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA. tsekosn@mir.wustl.edu
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2002 Sep 1; 16 (3): 311-9.

PurposeTo evaluate whether dynamic imaging of the coronary arteries can be performed with intracoronary infusion of low-dose gadolinium (Gd)-based contrast agent and assess the effect of long duration and multiple infusions on the image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR).Materials And MethodsDynamic coronary magnetic resonance (MR) imaging (130 msec/image) and contrast agent first pass myocardial perfusion studies were performed with intracoronary infusions of low-dose Gd-based MR contrast agent on dogs (N = 4) using a fast multislice gradient recalled echo (GRE) sequence.ResultsContrast-enhanced coronary arteries were clearly imaged during infusion periods as long as 2.3 minutes. The SNR and CNR of the contrast-enhanced coronary arteries remained essentially unchanged over multiple consecutive angiographic sessions. In addition, we demonstrated that first pass studies performed with intracoronary injection of MR contrast agent can be used as a means of assessing regional myocardial perfusion.ConclusionThese studies demonstrated that, using intracoronary infusion of Gd, coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) can be performed with high temporal resolution, and multiple low-dose slow infusions of Gd-based MR contrast agent can be performed without compromise of the vessel SNR and CNR.Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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