Projection imaging of the right coronary artery with an intravenous injection of contrast agent

Contrast-enhanced (CE) MR angiography of the right coronary artery (RCA) was performed using 2D thick-slice projection imaging with a small (8 mL) intravenous injection of contrast agent in six volunteers. With a tight contrast bolus injection, the RCA was enhanced for a few seconds after the contrast bolus was washed out of the right ventricle. This allowed data to be acquired when only the RCA was enhanced. Using 2D thick-slice magnetization prepared steady-state free precession (SSFP) imaging, background signal was suppressed and a complete data set was acquired in three heartbeats. A mean vessel length of 7.1 +/- 0.9 cm was depicted with a signal-to-noise ratio of 11.8 +/- 0.7 and contrast-to-noise ratio of 6.1 +/- 0.6. Thick-slice 2D projection CE SSFP is a promising method to depict the RCA.