Feasibility of Whole-Heart Coronary MRA on 3 Tesla Using Ultrashort-TR SSFP VIPR
نویسندگان
چکیده
Introduction: Coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) has been performed on 3.0T to generate higher SNR compared to 1.5T. In addition, high blood-to-myocardium contrast could be achieved using the SSFP technique [1]. However, SSFP is highly sensitive to field inhomogeneities. In particular, signal nulls occur every 1/TR in resonance frequency, producing “banding” artifacts in images. With VIPR (Vastly Undersampled Imaging with Projections) imaging, non-selective RF pulses are used, which will allow ultrashort TR, increasing the bandwidth in which the signal remains uniform. In addition, whole-heart MRA with isotropic resolution could be achieved with VIPR. 3D isotropic coverage of the heart would enable reformatting the images to visualize coronary arteries from arbitrary orientations. The purpose of the work was to evaluate the feasibility of whole-heart coronary MRA on 3.0T using SSFP and verify that ultrashort TR with VIPR allows good coronary MRA image quality with SSFP.
منابع مشابه
3D Whole-Heart Coronary MR Angiography at 1.5T in Healthy Volunteers: Comparison between Unenhanced SSFP and Gd-Enhanced FLASH Sequences
OBJECTIVE To validate the optimal cardiac phase and appropriate acquisition window for three-dimensional (3D) whole-heart coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with a steady-state free precession (SSFP) sequence, and to compare image quality between SSFP and Gd-enhanced fast low-angle shot (FLASH) MR techniques at 1.5 Tesla (T). MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty healthy volunteers (M:F = 2...
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