Fast 3D coronary artery contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography with magnetization transfer contrast, fat suppression and parallel imaging as applied on an anthropomorphic moving heart phantom

A magnetic resonance sequence for high-resolution imaging of coronary arteries in a very short acquisition time is presented. The technique is based on fast low-angle shot and uses fat saturation and magnetization transfer contrast prepulses to improve image contrast. GeneRalized Autocalibrating Partially Parallel Acquisitions (GRAPPA) is implemented to shorten acquisition time. The sequence was tested on a moving anthropomorphic silicone heart phantom where the coronary arteries were filled with a gadolinium contrast agent solution, and imaging was performed at varying heart rates using GRAPPA. The clinical relevance of the phantom was validated by comparing the myocardial relaxation times of the phantom's homogeneous silicone cardiac wall to those of humans. Signal-to-noise ratio and contrast-to-noise ratio were higher when parallel imaging was used, possibly benefiting from the acquisition of one partition per heartbeat. Another advantage of parallel imaging for visualizing the coronary arteries is that the entire heart can be imaged within a few breath-holds.