Two-dimensional coronary MRA: limitations and artifacts.
Our purpose was to assess image quality and interpretation problems of two-dimensional (2D) coronary MR angiograms. The coronary arteries of 27 subjects (12 normal volunteers and 15 patients) were evaluated with 2D coronary MR angiography (MRA). Coronary MRA was performed with a fat-suppressed electrocardiographically gated breath-hold gradient-echo sequence with k-space segmentation using a 1.5-T imager. Image quality throughout the study was occasionally degraded by: image ghosting (22%), ringing (19%), and/or blurring (22%) and incomplete fat-suppression (19%). Intermittent difficulties with breathholding were encountered in 44% of subjects. When limiting the analysis to those images with optimal image quality, interpretative difficulties were sometimes found: misregistration due to inconsistent breathholding (37%); difficulty in distinguishing veins from arteries (37%); obscured anatomy due to overlapping structures (26%); and poor visualization of portions of the left main coronary artery (59%). Two-dimensional coronary MRA studies have image quality and interpretive problems which need to be understood and addressed before routine clinical scanning is initiated.
Duerinckx
A J
AJ
Radiology Service, MRI, VA Medical Center, West Los Angeles, CA 90073, USA.
Atkinson
D P
DP
Mintorovitch
J
J
Simonetti
O P
OP
Vrman
M K
MK
D000328:Adult; D016477:Artifacts; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000175:diagnosis; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged