Inter breath-hold reproducibility of temporal patterns of coronary artery blood flow

Background While blood flow in the majority of arteries peaks in systole, the rhythmic squeezing of the coronary arteries and microcirculation as the heart beats results in left anterior descending artery (LAD) flow being diastolicpredominant while for the right coronary artery (RCA), there is approximately equal flow in systole and diastole. These temporal flow patterns can provide important information on disease state. The aim of this study is to assess the inter-breath hold reproducibility of parameters of coronary haemodynamics using a high temporal resolution spiral phase velocity mapping technique and to compare automatic and manual analyses.