Improved artery delineation in dual-stack coronary magnetic resonance angiography using parallel imaging at 3 T

Purpose: To improve vessel sharpness and T2 preparation (T'2Prep) in dual-stack three-dimensional coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) by shortening the time delays between the magnetization preparation pulses and the imaging stacks using sensitivity encoding (SENSE) at 3 T. Materials and Methods: By combining dual-stack three-dimensional coronary MRA with the parallel imaging technique SENSE at 3 T, the acquisition duration of each three-dimensional imaging stack was shortened by a factor of 2. The proposed technique was implemented and tested in experiments with a moving phantom and in measurements on six healthy volunteers. Results: The time delay between the navigator, T2Prep, and second imaging stack was reduced by 37%, relative to conventional dual-stack angiography without parallel imaging. This enabled the achievement of comparable high-vessel sharpness values for the left and the right coronary arteries relative to values known from conventional single-stack three-dimensional coronary MRA at 3 T. Conclusion: Parallel imaging allows for improved vessel visualization in dual-stack coronary MRA, given shorter temporal delays between navigator, T2Prep, and the actual image acquisitions, and thus considerably facilitates simultaneous acquisition of high-resolution angiograms of the left and right coronary systems. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.