Sensitivity-encoded coronary MRA at 3T

Long scan times are still a main limitation in free-breathing navigator-gated 3D coronary MR angiography (MRA). Unlike other MRI applications, high-resolution coronary MRA has not been amenable to acceleration by parallel imaging techniques due to signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) concerns. In the present work, mitigating SNR limitations by the transition to higher static magnetic field strength is proposed, thus enabling scan time reduction by the parallel sensitivity encoding (SENSE) technique. The study reports the implementation and evaluation of free-breathing navigator-gated 3D coronary MRA with SENSE at 3T. Results from 11 healthy subjects indicate that the approach permits significant scan time reduction in MRA of the left and right coronary systems. Quantitative image analysis and visual grading suggest that two-fold scan acceleration can be accomplished at nearly preserved image quality. The additional experiments appear to demonstrate that parallel MRA equally permits enhancing volume coverage and spatial resolution while maintaining scan time. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.