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Contrast‐enhanced whole‐heart coronary magnetic resonance angiography at 3 T with radial EPI
Author(s) -
Bhat Himanshu,
Yang Qi,
Zuehlsdorff Sven,
Li Kuncheng,
Li Debiao
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.22781
Subject(s) - magnetic resonance imaging , magnetic resonance angiography , image quality , contrast (vision) , artifact (error) , nuclear medicine , radial artery , nuclear magnetic resonance , artery , medicine , radiology , physics , optics , artificial intelligence , computer science , cardiology , image (mathematics)
Abstract Whole‐heart coronary magnetic resonance angiography is a promising method for detecting coronary artery disease. However, the imaging time is relatively long (typically 10–15 min). The goal of this study was to implement a radial echo planar imaging sequence for contrast‐enhanced whole‐heart coronary magnetic resonance angiography, with the aim of combining the scan efficiency of echo planar imaging with the motion insensitivity of radial k ‐space sampling. A self‐calibrating phase correction technique was used to correct for off‐resonance effects, trajectory measurement was used to correct for k ‐space trajectory errors, and variable density sampling was used in the partition direction to reduce streaking artifacts. Seven healthy volunteers and two patients were scanned with the proposed radial echo planar imaging sequence, and the images were compared with a traditional gradient echo and X‐ray angiography techniques, respectively. Whole‐heart images with the radial EPI technique were acquired with a resolution of 1.0 × 1.0 × 2.0 mm 3 in a scan time of 5 min. In healthy volunteers, the average image quality scores and visualized vessel lengths of the RCA and LAD were similar for the radial EPI and gradient echo techniques ( P value > 0.05 for all). Anecdotal patient studies showed excellent agreement of the radial EPI technique with X‐ray angiography. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.