Coronary arteries: breath-hold MR angiography

Radiology. 1991 Dec;181(3):641-3. doi: 10.1148/radiology.181.3.1947074.

Abstract

The authors describe a method for performance of ultrafast magnetic resonance (MR) angiography of coronary arteries with a standard clinical MR system and a body coil. Each image was obtained within a single breath hold by using an electrocardiography-gated, segmented, ultrafast, gradient-echo pulse sequence with an incremental excitation flip angle for the eight phase-encoding steps acquired per segment. By using overlapping 4-mm-thick sections, the coronary arteries were routinely depicted from the coronary ostia distally at MR in healthy subjects. Ultrafast MR angiography of the coronary arteries is feasible with use of a standard body coil. This technique offers considerable potential as an investigational tool and, with further development, may become a clinically useful imaging application.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Arteries / anatomy & histology
  • Coronary Vessels / anatomy & histology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged