Whole-heart coronary magnetic resonance angiography at 3 Tesla in 5 minutes with slow infusion of Gd-BOPTA, a high-relaxivity clinical contrast agent

T-1-shortening contrast agents have been used to improve the depiction of coronary arteries with breath-hold magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). The spatial resolution and coverage are limited by the duration of the arterial phase of the contrast media passage. In this study we investigated the feasibility of acquiring free-breathing, whole-heart coronary MRA during slow infusion of the contrast media (0.3 ml/s) for prolonged blood signal enhancement time. Ultrashort TR (3 ms) and parallel data acquisition were used to allow the whole-heart MRA in approximately 5 min. A newly approved gadolinium (Gd)-based high T-1 relaxivity contrast agent, gadobenate dimeglumine ([Gd-BOPTA](2-)), was used and coronary MRA was performed on a whole-body 3 Tesla M system to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Results from eight volunteers demonstrate that this coronary MRA method is capable of imaging the whole heart in 4.5 +/- 0.6 min. Major coronary arteries are well depicted with high SNR (42.4 +/- 12.5) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR; 27.1 +/- 7.6). Magn Reson Med 58:1-7, 2007. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.