title: Magnetic resonance imaging of the coronary arteries: imaging planes and resulting anatomy in two-dimensional imaging.
abstract: Magnetic-resonance imaging techniques use different imaging planes than does conventional coronary angiography to acquire longer segments of a coronary artery in a single tomographic slice. At first sight, these planes appear rather puzzling, because the coronary arteries are displayed in unfamiliar orientations. In this article we will review the existing methodology for obtaining the orientations for the proximal coronary arteries and describe the associated anatomical landmarks that can be seen. Additional orientations for the middle segment of the circumflex and distal right coronary artery are introduced. These orientations are used both in various acquisition techniques and for evaluation of three-dimensional data when using multiplanar reformatting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Rotterdam, The Netherlands. vangeuns@card.azr.nl
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: van Geuns
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Wielopolski
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: de Bruin
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Hulshoff
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oudkerk
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: de Feyter
mesh_terms: D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*