Two-dimensional coronary MRA: limitations and artifacts

Abstract

Our purpose was to assess image quality and interpretation problems of two-dimensional (2D) coronary MR angiograms. The coronary arteries of 27 subjects (12 normal volunteers and 15 patients) were evaluated with 2D coronary MR angiography (MRA). Coronary MRA was performed with a fat-suppressed electrocardiographically gated breath-hold gradient-echo sequence with k-space segmentation using a 1.5-T imager. Image quality throughout the study was occasionally degraded by: image ghosting (22%), ringing (19%), and/or blurring (22%) and incomplete fat-suppression (19%). Intermittent difficulties with breathholding were encountered in 44% of subjects. When limiting the analysis to those images with optimal image quality, interpretative difficulties were sometimes found: misregistration due to inconsistent breathholding (37%); difficulty in distinguishing veins from arteries (37%); obscured anatomy due to overlapping structures (26%); and poor visualization of portions of the left main coronary artery (59%). Two-dimensional coronary MRA studies have image quality and interpretive problems which need to be understood and addressed before routine clinical scanning is initiated.