3-DIMENSIONAL CORONARY MR-ANGIOGRAPHY WITH THE NAVIGATOR TECHNIQUE - IMAGING OF THE PROXIMAL COURSE OF ANOMALOUS CORONARY-ARTERIES

Congenital coronary artery anomalies are found in 0.3 to 1.3% of patie nts and can cause ischemic heart disease or sudden cardiac death, espe cially if the anomalous coronary artery courses between the aortic roo t and the pulmonary artery. identification of the anatomic course of t he anomalous vessel is not always feasible by conventional radiographi c coronary angiography. With MR coronary angiography not only flowing blood but also the vessel anatomy can be imaged. In previous studies, a two-dimensional gradient-echo sequence during breathhold was used de manding both cooperation of the patient and operator skill. The naviga tor technique reduces respiratory artifacts by retrospective respirato ry gating on the diaphragm's position, obviating the need for breathho ld studies. Furthermore, the three-dimensional MR coronary angiography enables post-processing using the Volume Rendering Technique for eval uation of three-dimensional view. We report on the use of this techniq ue for the identification of the course of anomalous coronary arteries in two patient cases.