Single-breath-hold whole-heart coronary MRA in healthy volunteers at 3.0-T MRI

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of single-breath-hold whole-heart MRA with a 3-T system. Ten healthy male volunteers underwent single-breath-hold whole-heart coronary MRA at 3 T. We assessed acquisition time, scores of image quality of coronary artery (RCA: proximal, middle and distal, LAD: main, proximal, middle and distal, LCX: proximal and distal) and the visualized vessel length of RCA, LAD and LCX. FINDINGS: Mean acquisition time was 37.7 ± 5.2 sec. Coronary branch was successfully depicted in 67/80 branches (84%) in the 10 healthy volunteers with diagnostic image quality. And, the average visible RCA, LAD and LCX vessel length were 83.4 ± 22 mm and 59.6 ± 24 mm. CONCLUSIONS: 3-T MRI with single-breath-hold 3D whole-heart coronary MRA can yield adequate image quality. Further study is needed to evaluate the clinical benefit of this technique.