Coronary arteries: contrast-enhanced MR imaging with SH L 643A--experience in 12 volunteers.
OBJECTIVE
To assess SH L 643A for three-dimensional breath-hold and respiratory-gated magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the depiction of coronary arteries.


METHODS
Twelve healthy male volunteers underwent either three-dimensional breath-hold (n = 6) or respiratory-gated (n = 6) coronary MR angiography before and after intravenous injection of 0.1 mmol SH L 643A per kilogram of body weight. For nonenhanced and contrast material-enhanced examinations, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) measurements were obtained. Image quality was assessed in consensus with a five-point scale. Statistical analysis of nonenhanced and contrast-enhanced images was based on a two-tailed paired Student t test. A P value at the.05 significance level was used.


RESULTS
Overall statistically significant improvement in CNR was observed after administration of SH L 643A compared with that on nonenhanced images (8.7 +/- 5.3 [SD] vs 23.6 +/- 7.2, P <.01). While SNR of contrast-enhanced images showed improvement over that of nonenhanced images, the difference was not statistically significant (25.4 +/- 0.8 vs 30.2 +/- 16.8, P >.2). Image quality improved from a mean of 3.1 +/- 0.8 for nonenhanced images to 4.0 +/- 0.8 (P <.01) for contrast-enhanced images.


CONCLUSIONS
SH L 643A causes significant improvement of the blood-myocardium contrast enhancement at coronary MR angiography compared with that with nonenhanced sequences.
Herborn
Christoph U
CU
Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, 45122 Essen, Germany.
Barkhausen
Jörg
J
Paetsch
Ingo
I
Hunold
Peter
P
Mahler
Marianne
M
Shamsi
Kohkan
K
Nagel
Eike
E
D000328:Adult; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005682:Gadolinium / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008297:Male; D012119:Respiration
D003287:Contrast Media; C402765:gadomer 17; D005682:Gadolinium