[The utility of coronary magnetic resonance angiography in children under six years of age with Kawasaki disease].
BACKGROUND
To follow up coronary arterial lesions due to Kawasaki disease (KD) using noninvasive magnetic resonance coronary angiography (MRCA), we studied a method to improve the quality of images in young children.


METHODS
Non-contrast enhanced, free-breathing MRCA with the vector ECG gating real-time navigator-echo 3D steady-state free precession (SSFP) technique was performed using a 1.5-T whole-body MR imaging system (Philips) in 68 children with KD aged 4 months to less than 6 years. A flex medium coil was used. Data were acquired with a 180 to 200 mm field of view (FOV) and were reconstructed with a 512 x 360 matrix. Patients were sedated during the examination. Many parameters were optimized for each patient; i.e., FOV, acquisition delay, turbo-field echo-factor, navigator-window and resolution, which resulted in the acquisition of high-resolution and high-signal images of the coronary arteries.


RESULTS
These conditions remarkably improved not only the quality of the images, but also the detection rate of coronary arterial segments (American Heart Association) in the children. The rates were as follows; Segments 1 (97%), 2 (97%), 3 (87%), 4 (66%), 5 (97%), 6 (96%), 7 (83%), 8 (56%), 9 (53%), 10 (21%), 11 (96%), 12 (29%), 13 (93%), 14 (54%), and 15 (65%).


CONCLUSIONS
MRCA is a useful method for evaluation coronary aneurysms from the early stages of KD, even in infants and small children.
Takemura
A
A
Department of Radiology, Tokyo Teishin Hospital, Japan.
Suzuki
A
A
Kitazume
T
T
Sonobe
T
T
Tsuchiya
K
K
Korenaga
T
T
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003323:Coronary Aneurysm / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009080:Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011871:Radiology; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013785:Thailand