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Maggie M. Fung¹, Vincent B. Ho², Maureen N. Hood², Ehud J. Schmidt³

¹GE Healthcare, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; ²National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; ³GE Healthcare, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

The proper selection of the “quiet”, motion-less phase is a critical parameter in visualizing  sharp vessels in coronary artery imaging. We show that the use of a multi-phase fat-suppressed 3D SSFP technique, which produces images at 3-4 cardiac phases, eliminates the need for accurate trigger delay selection in coronary artery imaging, and consistently produces better image quality relative to a single-phase acquisition. Intermittent fat suppression with Kaiser ramp steady state preparation was used to maintain fat suppression across multiple phases. Leading and trailing navigator were used to suppress respiratory motion that might occur within the lengthened multi-phase acquisition window.

Ajit Shankaranarayanan¹, Maggie Fung², Phil Beatty¹, Dan Blezek³, Tom Foo³, Luca Marinelli³, Randy Giaquinto³, Robert Darrow³, Eric Fiveland³, Ehud Schmidt⁴, Chris J. Hardy³

¹GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, California , USA; ²GE Healthcare, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; ³GE Healthcare, Niskayuna, New York, USA; ⁴GE Healthcare, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

3D whole heart imaging specifically targeted towards coronary artery imaging with a highly accelerated breath-hold acquisition on a 128-channel system has been demonstrated here.  Such a combination may enable high-resolution CAI with greater reliability due to the possibility of simultaneously reducing, both the window in the cardiac cycle, and the total acquisition time.

Qi Yang¹, Debiao Li, Xiaoming Bi, Jing An, Qiang Zhang, Renate Jerecic, Kuncheng Li¹

¹Xuanwu Hospital,Capital Medical University, Beijing, People's Republic of China

Coronary MRI at 3 Tesla imaging is attractive because the SNR gain from 1.5 to 3 Tesla can be traded to improve the spatial resolution and/or decrease the imaging time.Our study aims at evaluating  a new imaging technique at 3T for high-resolution, high-contrast visualization of coronary arteries and for the accurate detection of significant coronary artery disease.

Hsu-Lei Lee¹, Ajit Shankaranarayanan², Gerald M. Pohost¹, Krishna S. Nayak¹

¹University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California , USA; ²GE, Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA

Coronary artery imaging using SSFP at 3 Tesla exhibits high SNR and CNR, however off-resonance effects limit the TR and hence the achievable spatial resolution. Wideband SSFP sequences utilize an oscillating steady state to suppress off-resonance artifacts and therefore improve spatial resolution. Coronary artery images were obtained at 3T using three-dimensional navigated GRE, SSFP, and wideband SSFP sequences, with an in-plane resolution of 0.68 mm in the frequency-encoding direction. Wideband SSFP successfully suppressed banding artifacts, and is a promising approach for obtaining non-contrast, high-resolution coronary artery images at 3T with reliable image quality.

Peng Lai¹, Xiaoming Bi², Himanshu Bhat¹, Andrew C. Larson¹, Renate Jerecic², Debiao Li¹

¹Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA; ²Siemens Medical Solutions, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Whole-heart contrast-enhanced coronary MRA (CE-CMRA) has been proven to be effective at 3T. However, due to the subject-dependent contrast kinetics and variations in heart rates and breathing patterns, optimal timing of data acquisition is complicated. Also, accurate measurement of breathing-induced heart motion remains critical for respiratory gating. In this study, a new technique for whole-heart CE-CMRA with both self-timing and respiratory self-gating was developed. In comparison to the conventional approach, the proposed self-timing approach can improve both SNR and CNR. The RSG method with direct heart position measurement can potentially better suppress respiratory motion than NAV.

Robson Macedo¹, Shaoguang Chen¹, Shenghan Lai², Steven Shea³, Ashkan Malayeri¹, Moyses Szklo⁴, Joao Lima¹, Debiao Li⁵, Kiang Liu, David A. Bluemke⁶

¹Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; ²Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; ³Siemens Medical Systems, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; ⁴Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; ⁵Radiology, Chicago, Illinois, USA; ⁶Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Coronary wall magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a noninvasive method for evaluation of arterial wall remodeling associated with atherosclerosis.  Asymptomatic participants of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) study were studied using black blood MRI.  MRI assessed coronary wall thickness was compared to computed tomography calcium score, carotid intimal-medial thickness and risk factors for coronary artery disease.  Coronary artery wall MRI detects increased coronary wall thickness in asymptomatic individuals with subclinical markers of atherosclerotic disease and in individuals with zero calcium score.

Suzanne C. Gerretsen¹, ², Marianne E. Kooi¹, ², René M. Botnar³, Marcus Katoh⁴, Rob J. van der Geest⁵, Johannes Waltenberger¹, ², Jos M.A. van Engelshoven¹, ², Tim Leiner¹, ²

¹Maastricht University Hospital, Maastricht, Netherlands; ²Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands; ³Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany; ⁴Saarland University Hospital, Homburg/Saar, Germany; ⁵Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in vessel wall characteristics at longitudinal MR coronary vessel wall imaging in patients with angiographically proven coronary artery disease (CAD) and a control group of age-matched healthy volunteers. 22 patients and 26 healthy volunteers underwent coronary vessel wall imaging. MR imaging can be used to non-invasively visualize the coronary vessel wall and to detect the presence of (sub)clinical coronary atherosclerosis. This study showed a significantly higher SI as well as increased wall thickness in patients with CAD compared to age-matched healthy volunteers. The significance of this phenomenon remains to be determined.

Tao Li¹, Hong Shao Zhao¹, Quan Liu Cheng¹, Long Zu Cai¹, Li Yang¹, Hai Xi Zhao¹

¹PLA General Hospital, Peking, People's Republic of China

The vulnerability of coronary atherosclerotic plaques often results in cardiovascular events. Various techniques have been used in evaluating the vulnerable plaque. Contrast-enhanced MRA bright blood technique using Gd-DTPA has the capacity of visualizing human coronary atherosclerotic plaques. Enhancement of plaques can also be detected on contrast-enhanced MRA. The plaques enhancement may indicate the vulnerability. This work is to evaluate plaque enhancement using contrast-enhanced navigator-gated 3D-SSFP sequence.

Christian von Bary¹, Anne Preissel¹, Elmar Spuentrup², Alexandra Keithahn¹, Sylvia Schachoff¹, Simon Robinson³, Joel Lazewatsky³, Markus Schwaiger¹, Joerg Hausleiter¹, Rene Michael Botnar⁴

¹Klinikum rechts der Isar, Munich, Germany; ²University Hospital Köln, Cologne, Germany; ³Bristol-Myers Squibb, North Billerica, USA; ⁴King's College London, London, UK

We sought to demonstrate the feasibility of imaging vascular remodeling in a porcine model of coronary injury using BMS753951, a novel elastin-binding low molecular weight contrast agent.

Christian Stehning¹, Christian von Bary², Anne Preissel², Simon Robinson³, Andreas Steingötter⁴, Hannes Dahnke¹, René Michael Botnar⁴

¹Philips Research, Hamburg, Germany; ²Technische Universität, München, Germany; ³Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging, North Billerica, Massachusetts, USA; ⁴Klinikum rechts der Isar, München, Germany