High-resolution magnetic resonance coronary angiography of the entire heart using a new blood-pool agent, NC100150 injection: Comparison with invasive X-ray angiography in pigs

Recent developments of novel magnetic resonance intravascular contrast agen ts with low TI in blood aid a long intravascular half-life will rapidly pos ition magnetic resonance coronary angiography (MRCA) at the threshold of cl inical application. This article describes the use of one such intravascula r contrast agent for noninvasive coronary angiography and comparison with r outine invasive x-ray angiography. Six domestic farm pigs with an artificia l stenoses at the left circumflex were studied, NC100150 Injection, a new u ltrasmall supermagnetic iron oxide (Nycomed Amersham Imaging, Oslo, Norway) , was injected using a dose of 5.0 mg Fe/kg body weight. Scanning was done using a 1.5-T Gyroscan ACS-NT. A high-resolution electrocardiogram-triggere d scan covering the entire heart was applied Navigator echoes were used for respiratory tr triggering. In all animals the location of the stenoses det ected with MRCA correlated well with x-ray angiography. The correlation fac tor between the SI nde of stenoses determined by MRCA and x-ray angiography was 0.993. MRCA using NC100150 Injection can depict the major coronary, ar teries and branches well. Decreases in vessel caliber detected by MRCA corr elate well with x-ray angiography. The use of such intravascular contrast a gents show great promise for clinical applications for noninvasive detectio n of coronary artery disease in humans.