Cardiovascular examination with 3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging: first 100 cases at Ramathibodi Hospital.
BACKGROUND
Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has been utilized for diagnosis in various cardiovascular diseases and most of those were performed on a 1.5 Tesla CMR system. Recently, a 3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging system has been introduced into clinical practice, however the clinical experience on cardiovascular examination using this system is limited. Therefore, the authors' institution has integrated a team for developing a CMR program on this 3.0 Tesla system.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the authors' experience on the 3.0 Tesla CMR system.


METHODS
The data on patients referred to the authors' CMR unit between August 2004 and October 2005 were reviewed.


RESULTS
One hundred patients were referred for CMR examination. The mean age was 56 years (2 month - 85 years) and 65 patients were male. The most common indication was to assess coronary artery disease (64 patients). The performed examination was divided into cardiac structure and function assessment (39%), stress testing (23%), coronary magnetic resonance angiography (13%), myocardial viability assessment (12%), magnetic resonance angiography (9%), and flow assessment (4%).


CONCLUSIONS
The present study highlights that comprehensive assessment of various cardiovascular diseases can be performed on the 3.0 Tesla CMR system.
Rerkpattanapipat
Pairoj
P
Cardiology section, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand. aemc@hotmail.com
Siripornpitak
Suvipaporn
S
Pornkul
Ratanaporn
R
Jongjirasiri
Sutipong
S
Laothamatas
Jiraporn
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013785:Thailand