Three-dimensional cine imaging using variable-density spiral trajectories and SSFP with application to coronary artery angiography.

A single breath-hold 3D cardiac phase resolved steady-state free precession (SSFP) sequence was developed, allowing 3D visualization of the moving coronary arteries. A 3D stack of spirals was acquired continuously throughout the cardiac cycle, and a sliding window reconstruction was used to achieve high temporal resolution. A coil specific field of view reconstruction technique was combined with Parallel Imaging with Localized Sensitivities (PILS) to allow acquisition of a reduced field of view. A view ordering incorporating fat suppression was employed to allow use of sliding window reconstruction. The technique was evaluated on healthy volunteers (n=8), yielding images with 102 ms temporal resolution and 1.35 mm in-plane resolution, and reasonable visualization of the left and right coronary arteries was achieved. Copyright (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.