Coronary artery anomalies and variants: technical feasibility of assessment with coronary MR angiography at 3 T. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The purpose of this study was to prospectively use a whole-heart three-dimensional (3D) coronary magnetic resonance (MR) angiography technique specifically adapted for use at 3 T and a parallel imaging technique (sensitivity encoding) to evaluate coronary arterial anomalies and variants (CAAV). This HIPAA-compliant study was approved by the local institutional review board, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. Twenty-two participants (11 men, 11 women; age range, 18-62 years) were included. Ten participants were healthy volunteers, whereas 12 participants were patients suspected of having CAAV. Coronary MR angiography was performed with a 3-T MR imager. A 3D free-breathing navigator-gated and vector electrocardiographically-gated segmented k-space gradient-echo sequence with adiabatic T2 preparation pulse and parallel imaging (sensitivity encoding) was used. Whole-heart acquisitions (repetition time msec/echo time msec, 4/1.35; 20 degrees flip angle; 1 x 1 x 2-mm acquired voxel size) lasted 10-12 minutes. Mean examination time was 41 minutes +/- 14 (standard deviation). Findings included aneurysms, ectasia, arteriovenous fistulas, and anomalous origins. The 3D whole-heart acquisitions developed for use with 3 T are feasible for use in the assessment of CAAV.

published proceedings

  • Radiology

author list (cited authors)

  • Gharib, A. M., Ho, V. B., Rosing, D. R., Herzka, D. A., Stuber, M., Arai, A. E., & Pettigrew, R. I.

citation count

  • 51

complete list of authors

  • Gharib, Ahmed M||Ho, Vincent B||Rosing, Douglas R||Herzka, Daniel A||Stuber, Matthias||Arai, Andrew E||Pettigrew, Roderic I

publication date

  • April 2008