Coronary arteries: MR angiography with fast contrast-enhanced three-dimensional breath-hold imaging - Initial experience

Gadolinium-enhanced, three-dimensional, breath-hold magnetic resonance (MR) Coronary angiography was performed in two healthy volunteers and 11 patien ts suspected or known to have coronary artery disease, MR angiograms were c ompared with those obtained with retrospective respiratory gating, Of 52 ma in coronary arteries, 47 could be visualized with the breath-hold technique and 49 with the gating technique, Signal-to-noise and contrast-to-noise ra tios were significantly higher with the breath-hold technique. Overall imag e quality was slightly lower with breath-hold imaging. With either techniqu e, three of five significant coronary stenoses were correctly identified.