Single breath‐hold whole‐heart MRA using variable‐density spirals at 3t

Multislice breath‐held coronary imaging techniques conventionally lack the coverage of free‐breathing 3D acquisitions but use a considerably shorter acquisition window during the cardiac cycle. This produces images with significantly less motion artifact but a lower signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR). By using the extra SNR available at 3 T and undersampling k ‐space without introducing significant aliasing artifacts, we were able to acquire high‐resolution fat‐suppressed images of the whole heart in 17 heartbeats (a single breath‐hold). The basic pulse sequence consists of a spectral‐spatial excitation followed by a variable‐density spiral readout. This is combined with real‐time localization and a real‐time prospective shim correction. Images are reconstructed with the use of gridding, and advanced techniques are used to reduce aliasing artifacts. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.