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Efficacy of slow infusion of gadolinium contrast agent in three‐dimensional MR coronary artery imaging
Author(s) -
Zheng Jie,
Bae Kyongtae T.,
Woodard Pamela K.,
Haacke E. Mark,
Li Debiao
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1522-2586(199911)10:5<800::aid-jmri26>3.0.co;2-l
Subject(s) - contrast (vision) , k space , gadolinium , medicine , artery , blood flow , nuclear medicine , radiology , magnetic resonance imaging , computer science , chemistry , artificial intelligence , organic chemistry
The impact of the contrast infusion scheme on contrast‐enhanced coronary artery imaging was investigated. The imaging technique was a retrospective respiratory‐gated gradient‐echo sequence. To improve the contrast between blood vessels and myocardium, an inversion pulse was applied to null the myocardial signal. Extravascular contrast agent was infused slowly during data acquisition. Two contrast infusion schemes were compared in animal and volunteer studies and with simulations. One scheme enhanced blood signals during acquisition of both peripheral and central k‐space data, which resulted in a relatively flat low‐pass k‐space filter. The other scheme mainly enhanced blood signals during acquisition of central k‐space data, which resulted in a sharp low‐pass k‐space filter. It is concluded that the former scheme improves the signal‐to‐noise ratio and edge definition of coronary arteries compared with the latter scheme. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;10:800–805. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.