Breathhold cardiac MRI and MRA

Recent developments in MRI software and hardware have increased the speed a nd versatility of cardiac MRI by allowing image acquisition in a single bre athhold. Many studies have shown that conventional cardiac MRI is as accura te as echocardiography or cardiac catheterization for diagnosing numerous c ardiac conditions. In many cases cardiac MRI is the most accurate diagnosti c technique but has not been widely adopted for routine cardiac imaging. On e reason why the use of cardiac MRI has been limited is the long examinatio n times required for conventional cardiac MRI. The development of better ha rdware, such as faster gradient amplifiers and dedicated surface coils, has allowed the implementation of much faster EKG-gated imaging sequences. The se can be used in a single breathhold period, with a significant improvemen t in image quality compared with conventional sequences. Breathhold sequenc es can provide all the information provided by conventional cardiac MRI in a shorter time and with equal or better accuracy. Breathhold imaging will a llow much wider application of MRI to routine cardiac diagnosis.