Clinical Experience with 3.0 T MR for Cardiac Imaging in Patients: Comparison to 1.5 T using Individually Optimized Imaging Protocols

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has gained widespread acceptance for the assessment of cardiovascular disease (1-4). Recent developments in 3.0 T MRI technology have led to an increased interest in high-field cardiac imaging. Because the signal-to-noise (SNR) scales approximately linearly with the magnetic field strength, B0, an improvement in the SNR can be expected at 3.0 T in comparison to 1.5 T. Previous studies on high-field strength cardiac MR showed a significant increase in the SNR but also reported image quality problems that were associated with B1 field inhomogeneities, specific absorption rate (SAR) constraints and a pronounced sensitivity to INTRODUCTION