1. Whole-heart magnetic resonance coronary angiography with multiple breath-holds and automatic breathing-level tracking
- Author
-
Kaori Togashi, Toshikazu Kamae, Shigehide Kuhara, Tomohisa Okada, Ayako Ninomiya, and Shotaro Kanao
- Subjects
Coronary angiography ,medicine.medical_specialty ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,Image quality ,business.industry ,Computer science ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Magnetic resonance imaging ,Tracking (particle physics) ,Breath holds ,Diaphragm (structural system) ,medicine ,Breathing ,Medical physics ,Angiocardiography ,Nuclear medicine ,business - Abstract
Whole-heart (WH) magnetic resonance coronary angiography (MRCA) studies are usually performed during free breathing while monitoring the position of the diaphragm with real-time motion correction. However, this results in a long scan time and the patient’s breathing pattern may change, causing the study to be aborted. Alternatively, WH MRCA can be performed with multiple breath-holds (mBH). However, one problem in the mBH method is that patients cannot hold their breath at the same position every time, leading to image degradation. We have developed a new WH MRCA imaging method that employs both the mBH method and automatic breathing-level tracking to permit automatic tracking of the changes in breathing or breath-hold levels. Evaluation of its effects on WH MRCA image quality showed that this method can provide high-quality images within a shorter scan time. This proposed method is expected to be very useful in clinical WH MRCA studies.
- Published
- 2010