Rofo 2004; 176 - 40
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-820850

Coronary MRA at 3.0 Tesla compared to 1.5 Tesla: Initial results in patients with suspected coronary artery disease

T Sommer 1, M Hackenbroch 1, U Hofer 1, A Schmiedel 1, WA Willinek 1, S Flacke 1, J Gieseke 2, F Träber 1, R Fimmers 3, H Litt 4, H Schild 1
  • 1Department of Radiology, University of Bonn, Germany
  • 2Philips Medical Systems, Best, The Netherlands
  • 3Department of Statistics and Biometrics, University of Bonn, Germany
  • 4Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Purpose: 1) To evaluate the feasibility, image quality and accuracy of coronary MRA at 3.0 T in patients with suspected coronary artery disease and 2) to compare these results with coronary MRA data acquired at 1.5 T.

Materials and Methods: 18 patients with suspected coronary artery disease, who were scheduled to undergo elective x-ray coronary angiography were included. For coronary MRA at 3.0 T and 1.5 T, a Vector- ECG gated three-dimensional segmented k-space gradient echo imaging sequence was combined with real time respiratory navigator gating and tracking. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR), scores of image quality and sensitivity/specificity in the detection of coronary artery stenosis on a segment-to-segment basis were assessed at 3.0 T and 1.5 T.

Results: The average increase in SNR at 3.0 T with respect to coronary MRA at 1.5 T was 29.5% for the left coronary artery (LCA) and 31.2% for the right coronary artery (RCA) (p<0.001) and the average increase in CNR was 21.8% for the LCA and 23.5% for the RCA. (p<0.001). Scores of image quality, depiction of side branches and diagnostic accuracy in the detection of coronary artery stenoses (sensitivity and specificity: 82% and 88% at 3.0 T vs. 83% and 89% at 1.5 T, respectively) were equal at both field strengths (p>0.99). Conclusions: Coronary MRA at 3.0 T is feasible in patients with suspected coronary artery disease, providing a significant increase in SNR and CNR although current techniques do not result in significantly improved image quality and diagnostic accuracy in comparison to imaging at 1.5 T.