Coronary artery magnetic resonance angiography (MRA): a comparison between the whole-heart and volume-targeted methods using a T2-prepared SSFP sequence.

In this study, coronary MRA was performed on 10 healthy volunteers using the whole-heart and volume-targeted scans with comparable imaging parameters. Similar results in the SNR, CNR, and vessel diameter were observed. The depicted length of coronary arteries was longer using the whole-heart scan (whole-heart: RCA/LAD = 13.4 +/- 3.9/10.5 +/- 1.6 cm; volume-targeted: RCA/LAD = 11.0 +/- 2.6/8.7 +/- 1.8 cm). Imaging times for the RCA- (3.8 +/- 1.4 minutes) and LAD-targeted (3.6 +/- 1.3 minutes) are similar, while the time required for one whole-heart scan is significantly longer (12.2 +/- 4.0 minutes). The measured vessel sharpness was higher using the volume-targeted method (whole-heart: RCA/LAD = 0.65 +/- 0.18/0.78 +/- 0.16; volume-targeted: RCA/LAD = 0.84 +/- 0.22/0.90 +/- 0.20). Combination of the whole-heart and volume-targeted methods could be potentially useful in clinical applications of coronary MRA.