title: Initial experiences with in vivo right coronary artery human MR vessel wall imaging at 3 tesla.
abstract: Due to their relatively small size and central location within the thorax, improvement in signal-to-noise (SNR) is of paramount importance for in vivo coronary vessel wall imaging. Thus, with higher field strengths, coronary vessel wall imaging is likely to benefit from the expected "near linear" proportional gain in SNR. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of in vivo human high field (3 T) coronary vessel wall imaging using a free-breathing black blood fast gradient echo technique with respiratory navigator gating and real-time motion correction. With the broader availability of more SNR efficient fast spin echo and spiral techniques, further improvements can be expected.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA. rbotnar@caregroup.harvard.edu
authors.forename: René M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Botnar
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stuber
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lamerichs
authors.forename: Jouke
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Smink
authors.forename: Stefan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.forename: Warren J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Manning
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*