Magnetic resonance imaging of the coronary arteries: imaging planes and resulting anatomy in two-dimensional imaging

Magnetic-resonance imaging techniques use different imaging planes than doe s conventional coronary angiography to acquire longer segments of a coronar y artery in a single tomographic slice. At first sight, these planes appear rather puzzling, because the coronary arteries are displayed in unfamiliar orientations. In this article we will review the existing methodology for obtaining the orientations for the proximal coronary arteries and describe the associated anatomical landmarks that can be seen. Additional orientatio ns for the middle segment of the circumflex and distal right coronary arter y are introduced. These orientations are used both in various acquisition t echniques and for evaluation of three-dimensional data when using multiplan ar reformatting, Coronary Artery Dis 10:525-531 (C) 1999 Lippincott William s & Wilkins.