Three-dimensional, Navigator-Echo MR Coronary Angiography in Detecting Stenoses of the Major Epicardial Vessels, with Conventional Coronary Angiography as the Standard of Reference

Abstract

Navigator-echo, 3D MR coronary angiography is a promising sequence for assessing coronary arterial stenoses, but further improvements are required for distal segments.

High‐resolution selective three‐dimensional magnetic resonance coronary angiography with navigator‐echo technique: Segment‐by‐segment evaluation of coronary artery stenosis

“…In the 3D navigator-echo technique that uses transaxial imaging planes to cover the entire coronary artery (14), the voxel size of 1.2 ϫ 2.3 ϫ 2 mm might be too large to depict not only small branches of coronary arteries but also the stenoses of the mid and distal coronary arteries. Our method has the voxel size of 0.65 ϫ 0.92 ϫ 1.5 mm.…”

“…Magnetic resonance coronary angiography (MRCA) has been evaluated by many authors since the late 1980s (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). Electrocardiography (ECG)-gated breath-hold and navigator-echo guided data acquisition have been evaluated to overcome image blurring due to cardiac and respiratory motion during the relatively long MR data acquisition process.…”

“…However, not only the proximal coronary arteries, but also the mid and distal coronary arteries can be involved in the ischemic heart diseases. If all of the coronary arteries are covered with the transaxial imaging plane (12)(13)(14), the imaging time would be prolonged in association with large volume acquisition, and the right coronary artery could not be obtained with high spatial resolution because it runs in the through-plane direction. Thus, by orienting the threedimensional (3D) imaging slab along the major axis of the coronary vessels, coronary coverage can be more optimal with smaller imaging volumes (16).…”

Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Noninvasive Coronary Angiography and Plaque Imaging

“…30 Three major groups or "generations" of coronary MRA techniques can be discerned. From all techniques available, 2D breathhold CMRA scans, 31 3D retrospective respiratory navigator-gated coronary MRA, [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] and breathhold 3D CMRA 40,41 have been evaluated clinically (Table 2 and Figure 5).…”

Multislice breath‐hold spiral magnetic resonance coronary angiography in patients with coronary artery disease: Effect of intravascular contrast medium

“…Recently, a freebreathing 3D spiral approach showed promising results in volunteers (5). However, in patients reported sensitivities and specificities for free-breathing approaches are variable (sensitivities, 50%-93%; specificities, 50%-91%) (17)(18)(19)(20)(21), and further, the quality of the scans is typically assessable only after several minutes of data acquisition. Conversely, a breath-hold approach yields images within seconds, and scans with suboptimal patient cooperation can be repeated immediately.…”